


Blue Hues

by easternCriminal



Series: Exceptional people - Exceptional robots [1]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Steam Powered Giraffe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, and couldnt find it, let me tag zero, purely because I wanted this story, so I made it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:53:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22964191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easternCriminal/pseuds/easternCriminal
Summary: Peter Parker, cornered in an alleyway, has a surprising hero. Rabbit, meanwhile, waits for The Spine to return home.
Series: Exceptional people - Exceptional robots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1668139
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BrownieFox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrownieFox/gifts).



> this goes out to the five people that are active with the fics in the fandom - heck yeah dudes.

Peter Parker ducked into the nearest alley way that he could find, taking deep breaths as he crouched behind the dumpster, struggling to bring down the racing of his pulse and the extreme amount of adrenaline he could feel in his veins. After a few moments of quiet Peter rose to his feet, hoping that the quiet meant that he had lost his pursuers. As he emerged from behind the dumpster, Peter found himself surprised to find that he was not, in fact, alone in the alley. 

Further down the corridor between the buildings, was another man. It was hard to discern much about him, in the dark, but he was definitely tall and lanky. He wore a hat, and his head was tilted up to the sky, eyes closed. His shirt had a couple of the top buttons undone and smoke seemed to rise up from him. Judging from how the neighboring building was practically vibrating, grating painfully on Peter’s hypersensitive ears, it must be a dance club of some kind. The fellow in the alleyway was probably one of the patrons, out for a cigarette break perhaps? That would explain the steam like substance. Maybe even vaping? 

Peter was contemplating whether or not to wait until the man had returned inside the building before completely leaving the alley way when the decision was made for him. The sound of multiple feet hitting the ground behind sent shock waves of warning up his spine, and he felt his eyes behind his mask widening. He hopped into the middle of the alleyway, slowly backing up as the familiar uniformed men advanced.

The purple uniforms were ones he hadn’t seen until a week or so ago, and since then they had seemed determined to try and hunt him down while he was doing his rounds. They were brutal and hard to lose and Peter had no idea what they wanted. Silent in their pursuit. He had thought he had lost him… 

Peter sent a panicked glance behind him, and cursed lightly to himself when he saw that the civilian was still there, standing frozen at the mouth of the alleyway. The last thing he needed was to worry about an innocent party while trying to fight these guys. 

One lunged at him and Peter deflected him and his blade that crackled with electricity, kneeling down and lashing out a leg to knock one of the other ones off their feet. The fight escalated from there, until Peter was a blur of motion, trying to handle all four of them at once. He was thankful that while they were relentless in their attack at him, they either didn’t notice or care about the civilian. The man was still standing there, his body shaking almost violently as if he wanted to run, but was unable to. Peter could hardly blame the man, shock did strange things to people, causing them to freeze up being chief among them. It wasn’t an abnormal reaction from civilian, although the shaking was concerning. 

He had let himself get too distracted thinking of the man and felt a hand grab at his head. Desperation and panic made him lash out his elbow, triumphant to hear a cry of pain be elicited from the man. The hand pulled away, but not before yanking off his mask, exposing his face to the world. In the darkness though, that didn’t mean too much and Peter knew it was time to back away - leave this alleyway and hope they followed him. 

“A child.” A deep baritone voice said, and a sturdy hand clasped itself onto Peter’s shoulder, firmly but not painfully pulling him back towards the mouth of the alleyway. Much to his surprise, Peter found himself facing the broad back of the civilian man, who now stood between him and the men in the purple uniforms. 

“S-sir, this is dangerous!” Peter said, taking a step forward, trying to get around the man. But he might as well have said nothing for how much the civilian listened, instead quickly shoving up the sleeve of his shirt, blue and purple sparks of energy building up. Peter’s eyes widened as the man reared back his arm, tightening his hand into a fist before shoving it forward, large arcs of electrical energy flying out hitting the attackers. They dropped to the ground like ragdolls. 

“A-a-a-are you okay?” The man asked, his body twitching involuntarily as the words struggled to pass from his lips. Peter managed a dumbfounded nod, and a relieved smile appeared on the man’s face. “G-g-g-g-good.” And then, with a last painful looking twitch of his head, the man limply fell to the ground. Peter fumbled into the pocket on his suit and held it up to ear. 

“Mr. Stark? I need help.” 

oOo

The way back to Stark Tower seemed to last an eternity. Mr. Stark had assured Peter he would send someone to pick up the bodies; Peter hadn’t checked if they were alive or dead. His first priority was the man that had saved him. Peter wasn’t really sure if he was a civilian after what he had just performed, but even people with extraordinary abilities could choose to live normal lives, and if that was the case he couldn’t help but to feel guilty to bring the man into this. 

And that was the reason Peter found himself hopping from building to building, rushing as quickly as he could to Stark Tower, the carried in his arms. It was an awkward hold as the man was significantly taller than him and much heavier than the average person, but it was possible it was linked to his ability. Peter would be able to ponder those kind of things in depth after the man was in the safety of Mr. Stark’s hospital wing. 

A window leading directly into the ‘medical ward’ was open, just like Mr. Stark had said it would be. As gently as possible, Peter lowered the man onto the closest hospital bed, setting him down on the soft cushions. The man hadn’t stirred at all the entire time that Peter carried him, and worry had eaten away somewhere inside of him. 

“This is the man?” Tony walked through the door into the room quickly, eyebrows scrunched together in concern, pocketing his phone. “We have the men, by the way. They’re alive, but we’re going to put them somewhere very safe.” He assured Peter, patting him on the shoulder. “Now let’s make sure our knight in shining armor is okay.” 

“You’re not worried?” Peter asked, noticing the casual way that Tony said the words. He just waved a hand flippantly. 

“It sounds like he’s just a civilian with powers. Probably just over exerted himself helping you. I bet he’s never used his powers that much and it was a shock to his system, but most likely he’s fine. Friday, start running scans on him please.” 

“Yes sir.” The AI replied as Tony stepped forward to get a look at the man, taking off his hat and setting it on the bedside table. Instantly Tony’s eyebrows scrunched together and he ushered Peter to his side, eyes tracing over to the face, little alarm bells telling him in his mind that something was wrong.

“Before you called I was working on stripping down some parts from one of my old suits.” Tony said as explanation as he pulled out a cloth and a bottle of paint thinner from the toolbelt at his side. Dabbing some of the substance onto the cloth Tony leaned forward, giving another good look at the face, nodding to himself. 

“Mr. Stark, about the scan you requested-”

“I think I know where you’re going with this Friday.” Tony interrupted, lifting the cloth to the man’s face. Peter leaning forward curiously. With a single swipe across the man’s face, his skin seemingly was wiped off, leaving only shining silver metal exposed. “Our dear heroic civilian, is a robot.” Peter could only stare dumbly as Tony leaned forward more, wiping off the rest of the paint on the head, progressing down to the neck. 

“Sir, the android is highly dangerous.” Friday warned, although Tony didn’t pause in his cleaning of the metallic man. 

“Friday, please, obviously this thing is on our side if it helped Peter.” Tony said. 

“That’s right! I mean, he seemed nice. I don’t think he even wanted to fight.” Peter said, recalling the alleyway, and how the man he had twitched. Now that he knew he was a robot, the jerkiness of the movement made even more sense. 

“Is that so?” Tony asked, glancing at Peter as he finished cleaning off the shining metal. “I wonder if he was programmed to blend in. Perhaps as more of a helping working robot rather than a righting one?” He mused before Friday’s voice sprung through the intercom once again. 

“Not in that way, Mr. Stark. There is some kind of energy residing within it that is releasing some kind of waves. I have been unable to categorize or interpret them. It is not recommended to continue close contact with android until them it has been determined how dangerous they are.” Friday reported in a cool, controlled tone. Tony stuck out his arm and slowly backed up from the metal man, keeping Peter behind him. 

“Okay, now that is something worth being cautious around.” Tony admitted as he ensured that Peter was a good distance away. “Friday, start running some test in this room to help determine what kind of a perimeter we should keep around him.” Peter nervously looked over at the thing that had saved him, concern showing clearly in his eyes, and Tony clapped a hand on his shoulder. “We just don’t know how dangerous he is yet, he could be harmless.” He tried to assure before going to close up the door. 

“But… is he okay?” Peter asked, taking a few steps forward before Tony reached out grabbed the back of his suit. 

“I can look at what makes him tick after we’ve confirmed that it won’t accidentally explode the city.” Tony said, and Peter continued to look at the mechanical man in the bed with concern, but let himself get shepherded out of the room. 

The next few hours were painstakingly long as Peter was put through a decontamination chamber (no one was sure if carrying the man for as long as he had would cause damage) and changed out of his spiderman suit, happy to be more comfortable in sweatpants and a loose fitting t-shirt. He had taken residence in one of the communal rooms - one that when the Avengers visited they often enjoyed hanging around in together. Tony had asked if he could give Peter a ride home but the boy refused to leave before knowing the fate of the man who had saved him. Tony seemed curious about the robot, not concerned like Peter was. He had gotten into this mess because of Peter, and he knew he couldn’t leave until the robot came on and let it known that he was in okay shape. 

Tony eventually relented and let Peter stay, currently taking residence off to the side of the room, scrolling through walls of holographic text, rapidly typing several commands into the computer system and having quiet discussions with Friday. Peter managed to hear Tony send out a quick message to Bruce, and it at least made him feel somewhat better to know that Tony was calling in some intellectual backup. 

The door to the hospital room remained closed and sealed, for safety reasons. Peter, exhausted after the night patrol and weary from fighting the men in the purple uniforms, eventually drifted off to rest, eyes closing letting himself sink into the blackness of sleep. 

oOo

“I think I’m going to have to call it a night, Rabbit.” Zero said as he rose from the couch, tilting his head from side to side. Several spring and joints let out small ‘pings’ as he did so a small stream of steam escaped from the back of his neck as he gave a sigh. “Unless you want me to stay up with you…?” The question was genuine and kind, and Rabbit knew that if she said yes, he would stay up with her. Zero was just that kind of person. But she knew he was tired. Long performances like the one today was rough on his hardware, and the small tick in his leg and occasional spasm of his hand was a clear sign that he needed to go into stasis and let his programs do a system check. 

“I’m good, Zero. I’m sure Spine will be back soon anyway.” He sent her another glance, as if trying to gauge whether or not she was being honest, before heading back in the direction of the bedrooms of the Airbnb that the band had rented for the performance. 

When Spine had left, a few hours after they’d returned to the Airbnb after their performance, he had done it quietly, without telling anyone. Well… anyone but Rabbit. If there was one person who understood the way that Spine sometimes felt, wrong in his own wiring and restless for something different. Something that felt right. It was Rabbit. So he had taken her to the side, and she had helped him with the paint on face to try and make it as passing for human as possible. He did this sometimes, paint himself up like a person and then go off to a dance club. Usually one that did swing dancing, although he’d tried pretty much all of them before; salsa, line dancing, barn dances, the works. With the usually dim lights and the half drunken patrons no one seemed to notice that his face was off, not quite right. And he could be around them and try to pick up the right mannerisms and be just another person for a bit. 

Rabbit had helped him leave without the other band members noticing - he was surprising shy about the whole thing. And he always returned at a responsible time. 

He always did. 

So Rabbit stayed sitting on the couch, nervously playing with her hair, trying not to think about how he usually was home by now, that he never stayed out past one o'clock. And she waited. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce comes to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dude ngl I've never watched Avengers and I did this all in like one go.

Bruce Banner arrived at Stark Tower at noon the following day. Apparently when he had received Tony’s call he had been in the middle of a rather precarious and dangerous experiment on his own. He had worked hard on getting the material he was working with stabilized as fast as he could, but when working with finnicky experimental substances quick work wasn’t often an option. 

“Can I see it?” Bruce asked, emerging into the small living room with Tony at his side. Peter jerked awake from his spot on the couch, blearily trying to blink the sleep from his eyes. 

“Good morning Peter.” Tony said, giving a nod towards the boy before turning back to his friend. “No - that’s one of the reasons I wanted you to come. Friday can tell that the robot is emitting some kind of an energy, but what kind is unclear. It’s not in any of my databases.” Bruce nodded understandingly. 

“Sorry I couldn’t see you again in better circumstances.” Bruce said as he passed Peter, taking a moment to lean down and pat his shoulder before going to the side of the room that Tony had pretty much turned into his theory and research corner. Tony opened up a side panel, you wouldn’t be able to tell it was there if you weren’t looking for it, revealing a set of small openings. 

“Did you bring your hard drive with you?” Tony asked, and Bruce placed down his bag he had brought, opening it and withdrawing a black box with a long chod attached to it, inserting the end of the cord into the wall. 

“Of course Tony.” Peter could hear the eyeroll in his voice. “This has all the information I have on radiation reading and power sources.” 

“Friday will you-”

“Already re-running the previous scans on the room.” Friday’s calm voice relayed, and Tony gave a nod of approval. 

“Is he going to be okay?” Peter asked, rising to his feet and crossing the room. 

“Who?” Bruce asked, concern lacing his voice as he turned back to Peter, before his head swiveled back to Tony. “You didn’t tell me someone was injured?! Is someone stuck in the hospital wing because if they are with whatever is emitting this energy is in there with them - Tony if you knew it was dangerous why did you leave them in there? Our first concern should be to the injured.” Tony waves his hands, waiting for Bruce to stop his tirade. 

“It’s not - that’s not it Bruce. Friday, please bring up the feed of the room.” Tony requested, a holographic display popping up. 

“That,” Bruce pointed. “...is a man in the dangerous locked room. With some kind of dangerous radiation that you called me in for because not even you, Tony Stark, knows what it is.” 

“Not a man.” Tony zoomed in on the live feed, showing the silver faceplates, the vents on the cheeks, and the occasional steam that would spurt out of it. “A robot. He helped Peter in an alley earlier, and somehow he hasn’t turned on since then. Peter’s concerned.” He explained and Bruce gave a nod. 

“Oh, in that case whatever is giving the radiation off is probably some kind of power source in the robot.” Bruce turned towards one of the screens and keyboards Tony had set up and began to do some typing. “That should help to narrow down the search. Don’t worry Peter, once we’re sure it’s okay for us to enter Tony and I will give the robot a look over. There’s a good chance that it’s in stasis right now because whoever it’s creator is hasn’t given it another order.” Bruce said confidently, pulling up a chair and beginning to scroll through the information that Friday had collected overnight. 

“Come on kid.” Tony said, heading towards the door that he had brought Bruce through earlier. “Let’s get some food in you and let doctor Jekyll work some magic.” Peter followed Tony to one of the kitchens, grabbing the fixings for a sandwich. 

“Pepper restocked.” He stated, spreading the mayo on the slice of bread. 

“Yeah, you’re lucky.” Tony said, smiling fondly at the food in the fridge. 

“You should be eating too, Mr. Stark.” Peter said as he finished his sandwich. “And I mean it - I can practically hear your stomach from here.”

“Oh, food. Eating. Right.” Tony said, looking to see if there was anything that he could heat up and eat within a few minutes. 

“I think I’m going to head back to the other room. Maybe Bruce has made progress.” Peter said, and ignored the way that Tony stared after him. He knew that Tony and Bruce were both so eager to write off the robot the same way that they treated Friday. An AI that didn’t truly have a mind, that was programmed to be clever and smart and adept at what it was meant for but not much more than that. But Peter couldn’t forget the way that the robots’ entire demeanor changed when he had seen his face. The emotion in his voice - shock. And how it - he - it had sacrificed himself for Peter’s own safety. 

The robot had seemed so lifelike when it had been in the alley, just relaxing against the wall. And now instead it was laying limply on the bed. Guilt gnawed at Peter’s stomach like a ravenous beast. 

It was another three hours of sitting around anxiously, Bruce and Tony and the little work station, heads close together and murmuring back and forth, hands jotting down notes and calculations, occasionally asking Friday for some other information or input. At last Bruce had a loud sigh and Tony straightened up, stretching himself out. 

“Okay, the results are in!” Tony announced loudly, and Peter immediately dropped the gameboy he had been playing with in his attempt to distract himself from the agonizing wait. “You failed your midterm.” Peter hopped to his feet. 

“You mean he’s dangerous?!” Peter asked, hands nervously playing wringing against one another. 

“No, no, it was a joke Peter.” Bruce said. “It looks like the energy source is something that we haven’t seen here before, but it is contained in some way and doesn’t appear to be having any dangerous waves it’s giving off. Sorry it took so long Peter, it’s a tedious process and that last thing we want to do is put people in danger.”

“Friday, you can unlock the doors now.” The sound of the locks sliding out of place was music to Peter’s ears, and it was all he could do not to run ahead of Tony and Bruce into the room. But he did his best to hold back, letting the two more experienced men enter first. 

Seeing the robot in person, in proper light, not when it was late at night and he was tired, was interesting. Peter couldn’t help but to add a hurry to his step as he approached the robot. Some kind of vapor was still rising from it periodically. Tony and Bruce also seemed excited to get an up close view. 

“So this is the fabled mechanical man.” Bruce said, looking down at the shining metal face. 

“Friday was right, it is steam.” Tony said, holding his hand to one of the vents as a puff of water vapor came out. 

“How does he turn on?” Bruce wondered aloud, walking around him. “Uh… robot wake up?” He tried the words out. “Arise?” 

“Initiate?” Tony attempted. Peter reached down and grabbed one of the hands, holding it in his own. It was cold, and lifeless. The hand was attached to the same arm that the electricity had come from, and now that Peter could get a better look at it he could see that it was damaged. Part of the metal had become welded or warped, changing colors from the heat. He could see between slits and opened cracks to wires that had melted right through their plastic coating. Peter held the hand tighter, wondering if the robot could feel the cold. Wondering if his attempts to make the hand warmer was felt or appreciated at all. 

“Looks like we have no other choice.” Tony said, pulling out a screwdriver. 

“What are you doing?” Peter asked, but Bruce had already leaned forward and was unbuttoning the robots shirt, opening it to reveal the chasis. Tony let out a low whistle. 

“There’s got to be a switch or something, so we’ll look for that first.” Bruce explained. “And if that doesn’t work or if there is none, then we’re going to have to open him up.” 

“Isn’t that an invasion of privacy?!” Peter asked, clenching the hand tighter. 

“If anything it’s a favor.” Tony waved his hand. “I’ll even give him a tune up if ya want, as a thank you present.” 

“I’m not finding one.” Bruce announced. The robot’s chest was full of plating, far from a flat and sleek that Peter had expected. There were several vents on the side, looking almost like ribs, where even more steam escaped. Some kind of blue light emanating from within the robot shone through, reflecting off the metal bits. It was steady, not beating like a heart beat like Peter would have expected. 

“Peter, will you help sit the robot upright? We should check the back to.” Tony said. Peter shifted from one foot to the other, and Tony stopped for a moment, looking Peter in the eyes. “I- I know to you this seems invasive, but Peter this is the only way that Bruce or I know to try and make sure that this robot is okay.” Tony said, and it sounded like he was genuinely trying to see things from Peter’s perspective. Peter nodded slowly before helping to right the automaton. Surprisingly, once it was in an upright position it was able to stay on it’s own. Peter didn’t let go of it’s hand. 

“Alright, sorry Mr. Roboto, your shirt is really fancy.” Tony said as he grabbed a pair of scissors and began cutting up the length of the shirt. Bruce hovered on the other side of the robot, and even Peter couldn’t help but to lean back, curious to see how different the robot was from behind in contrast to the front. 

“What are those?” Bruce wondered out loud, his hand lightly ghosting over one of the six slits on the back of the robot. Along the spinal column of the robot the same blue light that had been seen from the front view of the chest shone through. 

“We can worry about that later.” Tony said, eye trained between the third and second set of slits. “I have a good feeling about this panel.” He said, eagerly prying it open. There was a set of switches and exposed wires, and again that inner blue light. Thankfully, one switch in particular had the customary circle and line symbols on it to show on and off. 

“Clever design.” Bruce muttered. “It looks like it’s a surge protector or something. It must flip off when the robot is too out of control or something.” His hand approached the switch, but Tony placed a hand on arm, stopping him. 

“Wait a minute.” He hurried out of the room, returning a moment later with his iron man gauntlets on. “Just in case.” He explained, returning to his spot. “Okay, go.” Bruce flipped the switch. 

It was very anticlimactic. The robot just continued to sit there, and a frown graced both Bruce and Tony’s face, disappointment evident. Bruce tried the switch a few more times, with the same result. 

“The tin man not in the mood to wake up?” Tony pondered. Bruce left the switch on as they closed back up the panel before the three of them worked to gently lower the heavy robot back onto the bed. 

“What’s wrong with him?” Peter asked, concern lacing his voice. 

“We’re going to find out kiddo.” Tony assured, eyes roving over the robot. “We should move him to one of the suit tune up labs.”

“You’re going to open him up?” Peter exclaimed. 

“Peter, if the robot isn’t turning on, then something is probably wrong with it internally.” Bruce stated calmly. “We’d rather not have to poke around in there, but if he’s remaining dormant because of a fried wire or something, then we can fix that and help him.”

“I would also love to see what makes him tick.” Tony stated, and Bruce leveled an unamused glare his direction. “What? I’m being honest. That’s virtuous isn’t it? But seriously Peter, everything is going to be okay.” Tony said, voice softening for a moment. And Peter swore that he could feel the robot’s hand, still tightly clenched in his own, give his hand a squeeze of assurance. 

oOo

The voices seemed to come from very far away. Most of them were unfamiliar, but one of them wasn’t. Spine knew that he had heard that one before. Maybe not often, but somewhere. It was hard to hold onto a thought though, and he was distantly aware that his thoughts kept of transcending times. The sound of gunfire. The feeling of electricity going up his arm. Screams for help. He didn’t recognize himself anymore. His hands, covered in blood, they weren’t his hands anymore. Who’s hands were these? He can’t even hold his sister’s hands anymore, because one of them isn’t a hand. It’s a giant saw. 

Something was wrong, Spine knew that much. Something had broken. And something inside of him told him that he had done this to himself. But he couldn’t remember what it was was. Or why he would’ve purposefully shattered his brain like this. Broken glass off memories that sliced through wiring. 

Family. He needed his family. Where was his family?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony, Bruce, and Peter open up The Spine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was stuck halfway through this chapter, and then how to write the rest of it came to me while driving back to college today. So thank you driving I guess. Also thank you Wikipedia from whom I copied some info about music.

The robot was moved to a work station, which was much more equipped for rooting around the innards of a mechanical being. Tony put away a suit he was working on, proving space for the robot. Peter had asked to carry the robot - he knew that Tony and Bruce would be willing to help him or find a different way to move the robot if he told them he didn’t want to, but it made the most sense really. His strength made it relatively easy, and there was something comforting to him about it. Being able to feel helpful in some way for the robot. 

He tried to lower him down kindly, but gone was the plush, comfortable hospital bed. He couldn’t help but to feel rude about laying him out on what had to be uncomfortable metal, but hopefully Bruce and Tony would be able to hunt down what was preventing him from waking up. Turning on. Whatever the correct terminology in this situation was. 

“Alright, making the first incision.” Tony said seriously, holding up and screwdriver, and Bruce jabbed his elbow into Tony’s side. 

“Peter is anxious enough as is, Tony.” He berated. Peter couldn’t deny that he was curious though, leaning in as Tony began to work on the chest plates. There weren’t actually any visible screws, so instead Tony used the flat head of the screwdriver to get under several of the plates and try to wedge them open, to no avail. 

“What, did they gorilla glue this thing together?!” He said in exasperation, pouting mildly. 

“Tony, can you do me a favor and sit him back up?” Bruce asked, and Peter obediently followed. They had taken off the remnants of his shirt leaving the robot completely bare from the chest up. Some of the plates on the chassis were nearly seamless, making it hard to tell how to exactly to under the metal to robots innards. Bruce popped back open the panel on the back of the robot, looking at the other switches. 

“Do you think one of these will release the panels?” Peter asked curiously, glancing up to see Bruce biting his lip.

“I would assume so, but I’m also concerned that they might turn him hostile, or cause an involuntary use of his weapons. Tony, you might want to put on your gauntlets again just in case, and Peter, let me know if you get any bad impressions before I press anything.” Peter nodded his head as Tony put on his gauntlets for the second time. 

“You’d think they’d have the decency to label these.” Tony muttered and Bruce went to the top button. It was a simple press button rather than a switch, and he hovered his finger over it for a moment, glancing at Peter who nodded his head giving it his Spidey seal of it-didn’t-trigger-my-senses. His thumb pushed in and there was the sound of something clicking before a singular note rung out into the air. 

“A code?” Tony questioned leaning forward and pushing the button again. The same note came out once again. “Or maybe something else. Is the note supposed to translate to something about how the robot is? Friday, can you identify that note?” 

“The note emitted from the robot was the note of F.” Friday responded, and Tony’s eyebrows scrunched together. 

“Is there anything important about that note?” 

“ **F** is a  musical note , the  fourth above  C . It is also known as  **fa** in  fixed-do solfège . It has enharmonic equivalents of E♯ and G , amongst others.

When calculated in  equal temperament with a reference of A above  middle C as 440  Hz , the  fr equency of  **Middle F** (F4) is approximately 349.228 Hz. The note of F is also commonly used in male singing groups, through the use of a pitch pipe, to help them to tune their voices.” Friday rattled off, sounding not unlike an encyclopedia. 

“That tells us nothing.” Tony muttered. “But thank you Friday.” He added on at the end. 

“I’m going to move onto the next one.” Bruce said, once again reaching over, this time to a switch. He flicked the switch to one side, and the result that instantaneous, causing all three of the people in the room to jump backwards in surprise. Out of the slits on the robot had emerged six six, sharp looking fin like things. Peter glanced over to see Tony’s eyebrows raised in surprise. 

“Interesting, but still not what we’re looking for.” He said, and flipped the switch back the other way, causing the fins to shoot back into the robot. “Let’s go for lucky number three Bruce.” 

Number three ended up to indeed be very lucky, as Bruce flipped the switch and the sound of hydraulics within the robot moving around filled the room. Peter lowered the Robot back down so he was flat on the slab, once again face up. Sure enough the plates on his chest were now slightly raised, and he could practically see the giddy delight on Tony’s face as he high fived Bruce. 

“Alright Mr. Roboto, let Doctor Stark take a look at what’s ailing you.” Tony took off his gauntlets and cracked his knuckles before moving the plates out of the way. The entire group stopped, only able to stare at the innards of the Robot. Most specifically, at the glowing blue orb that sat in its core, steadily giving off the blue light that had, until this point, only been seen by reflecting off the metal chassis and innards. 

“What is that?” Bruce asked, trying to get a better look. “Incredible power source - Friday does this match what we were running the number on earlier.” 

“Confirmed - the blue glowing core is the source of the previously researched waves.” Bruce gave a nod, hand hovering over the light, obviously tempted to touch it and hold it in his hand. But hesitant at knowing that it was clearly something that could be dangerous.

“I don’t think, uh, that’s the thing that’s wrong.” Peter said in a soft voice, and Bruce withdrew his hand, nodding. 

“You’re right Peter.” Bruce said, seeming to refocus on why they had opened up the robot in the first place. 

“Steam powered?!” Tony exclaimed, eye trained on insides on the robot. 

“Wait a minute, it’s what?” Bruce asked, eyebrows shooting up. 

“This machine is steam powered.” Tony repeated, gestured to the robot. Peter took a closer look as well. “That explains the steam it keeps emitting. But how is it functioning so well if that’s what’s keeping it going. It must do with that blue power source.” 

“Looks like he’s running low.” Bruce pointed out before heading over to the sink, filling up a water bottle. 

“Peter, I’m sorry kid, but can you sit it up again. I’ll open up the pipe that leads to the tank. Who knows, maybe that’s why it won’t turn on.” Tony said. 

“Do you really think so Mr. Stark?” Peter asked softly as he righted the robot, Tony grabbing a wrench and getting to work on the pipe. 

“I mean, it certainly won’t do any damage to replenish it.” Tony said instead of a definitive answer, reaching his hand out and grabbing the bottle from Bruce, pouring it’s contents into the robot. “Here you go buddy, a nice drink.” He put the tank back into place and put the pipe back together, reattaching it as tightly as possible. 

The water inside began boiling again, steam rising and gears turning, some kind of ticking from inside the robot accelerating in speed. 

Peter felt his senses activate and he reached forward, jerked Tony and Bruce’s hands outside of the chest cavity just in time as the panels quickly snapped back into place. The robot began to jerk around, and Peter couldn’t help but to compare it to a person having a seizure. After a moment it once again was limp on the table, steam pouring out of his neck, his cheeks, his back, his chest, all over the place. 

“That didn’t hurt him, did it?” Peter asked nervously, looking at the robots face. Tony frowned slightly. 

“I have to guess that, with a full tank, it attempted to turn on again?” He said slowly. “But it looks like that didn’t work.” 

“S-s-s-sir.” Friday’s voice crackled over to the intercom and Tony jumped. Peter’s eyebrows shot up. Friday never stuttered like that - Tony had always taken pride with the suaveness and smoothness that his AI had. 

“Friday? What’s wrong - systems check.” Tony ordered, concern evident on his face. 

“M-m-m-m-miss fires-s-s are coming f-f-f-from-m-m-m.” Friday seemed to completely abandon that sentence, starting another. Or perhaps Friday thought they had finished the thought. “Permis-mis-mis-mission to cut-t-t-t off-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-”

“Whatever it is you need to do Friday.” Tony encouraged, and after a moment the speakers silenced. Bruce was looking at the robot, and Peter could practically see the gears turning in his mind. 

“I apologize sir.” Friday said, coming back on, and Peter couldn’t help the sigh of relief that came from his mouth. “Over all frequencies immense amounts of misfiring impulses came across. It seems that it had very negative effects on my system.” Friday reported. “I have had to disconnect from any wifi, radio waves, etc.” Tony nodded his head. 

“Did it leave any effects?” He asked, already bringing up a holographic screen and opening the section that held Friday’s code, reading through it so fast it looked like he was merely scrolling. 

“No sir. Systems are nominal. I would request that you don’t try to reconnect until the robot has stopped emitting the waves.”

“So it is the robot.” Bruce muttered, taking a hand and ghosting it down the robots face. “It must be turned on then, on some level at least, if it’s broadcasting waves.” 

“Curiouser and curiouser.” Tony said. “Looks like we’re going to have to do some more research on this fellow before sleeping beauty is going to open his eyes.” 

Peter looked at the gleaming silver face, and couldn’t help but to wonder that if the waves it was sending out gave that much trouble to Friday, the most sophisticated AI he knew, what did that say about what was going on internally with the robot?

oOo

The search for The Spine had started early that morning, when it became obvious that he wasn’t coming back. Rabbit knew that the only reason he wouldn't was that if something had prevented him from doing so. And even then, he could’ve at least come by and checked in, let Rabbit and the other’s know why he would be gone for so long. So that meant, whatever it was had been unexpected. 

Rabbit couldn’t stop herself from thinking about the Beciles. They were still out there. Lurking in wait. And the idea that they might have come for him, and taken him, and put him through the same things that Rabbit had been… It sent ominous shivers up her spine. Pun NOT intended. 

They had decided that the best way would be to split up. Chelsea and Camille were going around with a Blue Matter reader, but surprisingly the city of New york had lots of Blue Matter residue infecting the place, and their search was much more difficult than they would have preferred. Steve and Michael both were going around to the local dance clubs - she had to tell them where spin had intended to go. She left out any details she could, but the fact that The Spine had been hoping to dance was crucial information for their search. 

Meanwhile, her and Zero were doing the best solution they could think of. They had split New York into a grid pattern and were systematically walking the streets, every block or so sending out a signal through the frequency that only the Walter robots could use. With any luck, The Spine was at least okay enough to respond. 

Surprisingly, despite their metallic faces showing clearly in the daylight, not many people seemed to take notice. Rabbit supposed that New Yorkers were just so accustomed to strange masked weirdo’s that it had become common place. Which was nice, because if Six or Five found out that they had walked around like this they would be in big trouble. Especially with The Spine already missing. She could practically hear that classic, trademarked (literally) Peter Walter disappointed tone as they berated her and Zero. 

But this was important. 

At the end of a street corner, Zero on the other side of the street, she paused for a second, closing her eyes to try and concentrate and get the message across as clear as possible. 

“ _ The Spine, this is Rabbit. Please tell me you’re okay.”  _

_ “Spine if you respond I promise I’ll watch ice cream melt with you.”  _ Zero’s voice came across the communication line, and a smile tugged at Rabbit’s lips. For a moment, there was no response, and disappointment wormed its way into Rabbit’s circuitry. 

And then, the world turned into pain. 

Rabbit could feel her legs buckle beneath her, the shock to her system almost too much, the edges of her circuitry begging to shut down. 

_ Hurt pain fizzzling of wires and steam and blood and screaming and  _ It was hard for Rabbit to think through the chaos that assaulted her brain, but she recognized the feeling of broken wiring and malfunctioning neural components. She pulled herself out of the ‘conversation’, shutting herself off from the frequency, all frequencies. 

“You got that too, right?” She wasn’t sure when Zero had come over, but she sure was thankful for it. Her legs were shaking, the hydraulics inside squealing and moaning from the shock. Zero helped her back to her feet. “It’s got to be The Spine, right?” 

“It’s got to be.” Rabbit repeated, looking out at the surrounding area. He could still be almost anywhere, hearing him didn’t mean anything. Yet. If they did this right, they could triangulate his location. She squeezed Zero’s hand comfortingly, feeling how it shook with shock and concern. “It’s The Spine, and he’s hurt.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading my dudes!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something bad happens. There is a meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter, but this is where it felt right to end it. I think I know how the story is going to go from here on out. To be honest, it'll probably be a relatively short story, but hopefully ya'll will still enjoy it. 
> 
> I wrote half of this chapter and then decided I wanted to handle it a different way so that was fun.

For a while, Peter had watched Tony and Bruce work. They were creating a 3D holographic display of the parts that made up the robot, hoping that it would shed some light on what was going on inside of the robot. The fact that it was emitting some kind of communication like waves was also interesting to them, and the two of them had retired into the living room area to discuss some of the possibilities as the sun sunk down past the New York City skyline. Peter had looked and given them some input, but eventually he had returned to the robot’s side, looking over his metallic form in concern. 

The pinks and oranges of the sunset filtered through the window in the room, and gave the entire place an almost ethereal glow. It caught on the steam that rose from the robot in a steady steam, like mini clouds in the room. They had already filled the water tank up a second time, trying to make sure that the problem wouldn’t be the lack of fuel. Peter knew that Tony and Bruce were both itching to find out what the blue power source was, but unless it was determined that the blue ‘heart’ of the robot was the problem, they had both agreed to leave it be. If they could get the robot activated and talking, then they could just ask him themselves. 

“I hope you’re okay.” Peter said, letting his words hang in the air. “I feel really bad, that you got so hurt helping me. I’m supposed to be the one preventing people from getting in danger, but I guess I kind of failed.” He let his pain and sorrow filter into his words. “Sorry, for hurting you.” 

The robot didn’t say anything, it just continued to lie there. Peter couldn’t help but to feel at least a little disappointed, as if he had hoped that talking to it would actually help. He wasn’t even sure if it could hear him. He reached over and took it’s hand in his own again, rubbing his thumb over the knuckles like Aunt May used to do to him when he came home in tears. 

Then, there was the sound of the window shattering. 

Peter stood up, cursing himself for being distracted, turning to face the intruders. Purple uniforms, of course. Dread welled up in Peter’s chest as he counted five of them. Far too many for him to fight alone, and he couldn’t help but to glance over at the door, wondering how fast Tony and Bruce could get in there. 

His opponent didn’t seem too keen on waiting for the cavalry though, and quickly he found himself turned into a flurry of movement, dodging and weaving. Sneaking in jabs when he could. 

“Friday!” He shouted, as he leapt out of the way of a fist. “Can you-” Peter cut himself off, eye widening as he saw two of the men looking at the robot before hefting him up, trying to balance the robot’s dense and heavy weight between them. “No!” Peter shouted, lurching forward to try and drag their attention from the robot. But instead a heavy blow was delivered to the back of his head, and the world faded into darkness. 

oOo

Tony hurried down to the main floor. He couldn’t help but to fidget in place, and his elevator which was known for its speed seemed to progress at a snail’s pace. Bruce was upstairs, swiftly getting in contact with anyone who was currently available. Last that Tony had heard they had gotten in contact with Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Daredevil. Most of the local heroes in New York and all of the Avengers had a soft spot for Peter, so it pretty much took one word to convince the other’s to help in their search. Tony was eager to get out there and start on the search after having called some of the other’s for backup, but then Friday had interrupted him, halfway into his suit, with some very interesting information. Game changing even. 

The doors finally opened, and to Tony it was like a breath of fresh air. He was moving before he even was fully aware of it, taking long strides towards the front desk receptionist. Or, more specifically, the group of people that stood in front of her. They were a rather eclectic group, Tony noted. Two of them had shocking bright blue hair, one with dreads, another with the stranges looking goggles sitting upon his head, and the other two with faces that just barely triggered Tony’s uncanny valley senses. Just like the robot when Peter had just brought him in. 

“Jennifer, do you want to take a break?” He said, and the receptionist jumped slightly, looking back at him with wide eyes. 

“Mr. Stark.” She exclaimed, surprise lacing her voice. “T-these gentlemen. These folks say that they’re here for a building examination. Lovely fellows.” Tony gave a nod. ‘Lovely fellows’ was one of the code phrases among his staff for suspicious individuals. He patted her shoulder. 

“Don’t worry Jennifer, these are actually people I’m very anxious to meet.” Jennifer rose to her feet and nodded, excusing herself to the back room, leaving on Tony and the motley crew. 

“Mr. Stark.” The one with the dreadlocks said, false politeness dripping from his lips. “We’re here to inspect the building-”

“You are the owners of the robots?” Tony said tersely, getting right to the point. They didn’t have time for this. Peter was somewhere, alone and scared and probably hurt. 

“R-r-r-r-robots?” The girl with the red hair in the back said, head twitching to the side slightly. “We don’t know wh-wh-what you’re talking about-t-t.” Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose, eyes screwed tight as he gave out a sigh. 

“I’m assuming that you’re here to collect that last piece of your robot set.” The result was instantaneous. All members of the group were on edge, eyes locked on Tony. “Follow me.” He waved them in the direction of the elevator. He didn’t wait to see if they’d follow, he had a feeling that they would. Anyone who owned such incredibly and probably expensive robots would want them back. 

The doors to the elevator opened and Tony walked inside, at last glancing back. Just like he had predicted all of the newcomers had followed him, although the two people who had been at the back of the group with the uncanny not-quite-passing-for-human faces both stood at the mouth of the elevator looking at it uncertainly. Tony thought back to Peter’s robot and how heavy it had been and waved the two people in. 

“I’m used to abnormally heavy guests. This elevator should take your weight just fine.” The two human men both raised their eyebrows, exchanging a glance. The blue haired girls both helped the other two onto the elevator, although Tony couldn’t help but to notice that they had yet to say a word. 

“D-d-d-don’t you know better than too ment-t-t-tion a womans weight?” The red haired girl said. Robot. The red haired robot, Tony was sure of it now. 

“Don’t mind him.” The other (surely) robot said, patting the red haired robot’s hand. 

“Let’s cut the pleasantries-” The one with the dreadlocks started, but Tony held up a hand. 

“I’d actually like pleasantries, even if only quickly. Before I say too much, I want to make sure I’m working with trustworthy people.” Irritation seemed to ooze off of the man with the dreadlocks, but the other one with google just gave a nod. 

“I’m Michael Reed. This is Steve Negreste.” He gestured towards the two girls. “Camille and Chelsea. And those two-” A quick wave in the direction of the robots. “-are none of your business until we know more about you. And where the ‘missing piece of our set’ is.” He repeated Tony’s earlier phrase with venom so potent that if Tony wasn’t used to a litany of verbal attacks it might have actually cut. But he was tougher than that and held his ground. 

“Tony Stark.” He held out his hand. One of the blue haired girls, Chelsea if he recalled correctly, was the only one to cme forward and shake it. But her hand was cold and her grip firm to the point of almost hurting. He knew a threat when it was delivered, whether through words or actions. “And, unfortunately, your robot is not here.” 

He didn’t have time to think, she was too fast. In an instant he was slammed up against the wall of the elevator, his back painfully hitting the cold metal. The red haired robot had his shirt tightly clenched in her fists, pressing against his chest and he could feel the pressure on his ribs and in an instant he knew that if she wanted to, she could simply press against him until his ribs broke and his inside turned to jelly. 

The door behind them opened as they arrived at their floor. 

“Rabbit!” Negrete lunged forward, eyes wide, and Michael was tugging on one of it’s arms. The robot’s head was twitching in that looked like a painful way, steam coming off of her in a steady cloud. Her arms shook, letting out a rattling sound. But here eyes were trained on Tony’s face, pure anger and fear on display. “Rabbit you’re hurting yourself.”

“I can bust through the neural block.” The robot, Rabbit, said through gritted teeth. “It’ll be worth it and I’m sure I can salvage my brain. Just a little pain, just a little hurt.” The other robot came up and put a hand on her shoulder, face serious. 

“Rabbit, this isn’t going to help us find him.” He said, and while the robot did glance over at the other robot, her hands didn’t loosen. 

“Tony?” The sound of Bruce’s voice rang through - of course, he had almost forgotten that the elevator was connected to the same room that him and Bruce had been working in. “Are you in that elevator somewhere? Who are all these people?” 

“Where is he?” Rabbit ground out. “Where is my brother?” She pushed him against the wall harder, and the tick in head and her arms got worse. 

“We need your help.” Tony finally said, managing to find his words. “Someone took him. They took him and our friend.” The robot didn’t move for a moment, just staring at him as well as she could with her head continually seeming to rebel against her. Finally she let go and turned partially away from him, hands shaking before she pressed her head into them, some kind of thick black substance beginning to slip through the cracks of her fingers. 

“Spine where are you…” She muttered as the other robot led her out of the elevator with the other’s before bringing her close to his chest. 

“A-apologies, uh, Mr. Stark.” Michael said nervously as Tony took a moment to get his breath before walking off the elevator. “We’re all a little on edge. The last time one of the robots went missing, well, to be frank, a borderline world ending catastrophe threatened to take place.” Tony’s eyebrows rose. 

“Are you okay Tony?” Bruce asked, weaving his way through the crowd. Tony waved him off, although he couldn’t help but to bring a hand to his chest, absentmindedly rubbing where the robot had pressed into him. It was going to bruise, he was pretty sure of that. 

“I’m fine Bruce. And these are my guests. They know the robot that was in our care.” He gestured to the small group who had formed a somewhat protective barrier around the robot named Rabbit. 

“Well then.” Bruce said, turning to face them, eyes lingering on each of them. From the blue hair to the steam rising in the air. “It looks like we have quite a bit of talking to do.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and thank you for all the comments I've gotten! Honestly it's far more than I ever expected and makes me so happy, definitely encourages me to keep writing!
> 
> Let me know what you thought of the chapter :)
> 
> have a good day!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Bruce talk to the newcomers about how to proceed. Rabbit get's a tune up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two updates in one day? I must be a masochist. 
> 
> I am.

Their guests were seated on the large couch, the same one that Peter had slept on just last night. Even the thought of it sent a tremor of anxiety through Tony. Part of him felt guilty for being here, talking to these strangers instead of out on the town trying to find him. But the logical side of his brain calmly told him that this was one of their best leads right now, and pretty much every other superhero or vigilante was already on the search as well. It didn’t stop his hand from nervously jotting down some designs for a new ironman portable gauntlet on a piece of scratch paper. 

Bruce had decided to take the reigns of the small little meet and greet seeing as things had not gone well in the elevator. Tony’s ribs still hurt from where the robot had shoved him, hands of steel or some other kind of metal digging into his skin and bones. 

Introductions had already gone around, once again the robots deliberately left out. The red haired robot, Rabbit, was not looking at Bruce or tony, instead keeping her face on the window. Every now and then she would twitch, and there appeared to be a tremor in one of her hands that refused to go away. Her and the other (presumed) robot would glance at each other every now and then, but other than that she kept her eyes trained away from the conversation. 

“It’s nice to meet you.” Bruce said courteously. “I’m Bruce Banner and this is my friend Tony Stark, although you’ve already met him. He isn’t the most… tactful of people.” 

“Where’s The Spine?” The as of yet unnamed robot asked, eyes wide and pleading. 

“The Spine?” Bruce repeated, turning the word of in his mouth. 

“Zero.” Negrete berated. So much for them not saying the names of the robots. Tony took note not to forget the name. They probably wouldn’t repeat it if he asked. “The Spine is the robot that we believe you had here. What was he doing here?” It was obvious Negrete was trying to be calm and diplomatic, but the edge of anger had still snuck into his words, lacing them with sharp points and dangerous poison. Bruce instantly knew he would have to navigate this carefully to avoid getting pricked. 

“We have this friend, uh, pupil, um…” Bruce tripped over his words. He always had a hard time trying to qualify what Peter was to their group, somewhere between a nephew slash son slash business partner. “Peter, he’s just a kid really. A teenager. You might know him better as Spiderman.” He waited for expected ripple of surprise to go through the group, but it never came. They just remained with their eyes on Bruce, faces serious as if soaking up every word that he said. 

“Last night, or I suppose it might have been extremely early this morning, he arrived at Stark Tower with the robot in tow. According to him he had been pursued by some hostile men which led him into an alleyway. While fighting these men the robot helped to defend him, saving him really.” He saw the people in the group nod, and the robot named Zero gave a big ‘awww’. Rabbit, still not looking at Bruce, raised the hand that wasn’t shaking uncontrollably to her mouth, eyes scrunching up as something black began to leak from them. 

“Peter brought the robot back hoping that Tony would be able to help it. He, uh, he didn’t know it was a robot at first. From what they’ve told me it had the same carefully done make up as the robots in your party. Eventually I was called in to help since its core was giving off possibly dangerous waves. They weren't dangerous. At least not while they were being directed to power the robot, stabilizing the energy. Since it wasn’t turning on we tried to find out what was wrong with it but being unfamiliar with the technology there wasn’t much we could do with the limited amount of time we had with the robot. Tony and I had been trying to piece together how it worked so we could try and troubleshoot a few things when Stark Tower was broken into. The security camera showed us that the same group that had been after Peter when he had run into the robot had crashed through the window. They left with Peter and the robot.” 

His explanation finished, the words hung in the air as the other people in the room seemed to digest them. But Tony was never very good with quiet.

“We need your help.” He said, opening his arms in pleading gesture. “We didn’t take your robot to kidnap it or anything, just to hopefully repair him since he saved Peter.” He ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath of air. “Peter, he’s important to us. And he’s just a kid. And I can tell that your robot is important to you too. If we work together, hopefully we can get both of them back quickly. Before something bad happens to either of them.” 

“I’m going to need to see the security footage you mentioned.” Michael stood up, holding a hand out. 

“I can show you those.” Bruce said with a nod. “We can also get started on trying to locate where our companions are.” 

“In that case take Chelsea too.” Negrete said, gesturing to one of the blue haired girls. “The Walter Workers know more details about the automatons than Michael or me, and Michael can help translate for her.” 

“Translate?” Bruce questioned. 

“The Walter Workers can’t speak.” Michael said it like it was an answer and not something that just brought more questions to Tony’s mind. 

“Do you have a lab we can use to tune up Rabbit?” Negrete asked as the other three walked off to one side of the room. The robot named Rabbit had remained looking out the window the whole time, the tremor in her hand beginning to shake her arm as well. 

“Yes. We’ll have to go a bit farther than I’d like since my closest lab was broken into, but that just means we’ll have to go up a floor.” Tony walked over to the elevator, glancing back to see if the other’s were following. Rabbit was standing and was keeping eye contact with the other robot, eyes glowering. His expression changed several times, clearly trying to plead or bargain with her although no words left his mouth. Perhaps some kind of wireless frequency they communicated on. He’d have to find time to ask. 

“Fine.” Rabbit bit the word off. The other blue haired girl, Camille, gently took Rabbit by the elbow, leading her to the elevator with Zero and Negrete bringing up the rear of the group. This elevator ride was blissfully much shorter. Tony wasn’t sure how long he could take the glares that Rabbit was giving from the corner of its eyes every two seconds. As if it could kill him with a mere glance. Could it? Tony didn’t know much about these strange robots, maybe they did have laser eyes. He’d have to look into it. 

Tony led the way to one of his workshops, which was pretty close to the elevator and would have only taken a mere moment’s breath to get to except for the fact that the robot named Zero stopped every two second oogle at something, always with an air of wonder in his voice. When at last they did reach it Rabbit was led to the middle of the room, Zero chatting excitedly with her in what appeared to be an attempt to distract her. From what Tony couldn’t say. Possibly from himself, or maybe the missing third robot, or perhaps the tune up she was about to undergo. 

“Can you show Camille where you keep things?” Negrete asked, making Tony jump slightly. He had been so caught up in watching the robots he had nearly forgotten about the humans in the room with him. “And if you have something that I can use to wash the paint off their faces that would be good.” 

Tony handed off some turpentine, several clothes, and bucket of water to Negrete who immediately sat Zero down on one of the stools, beginning to ruin what must have been hours of hard work on the paint job. Meanwhile Tony showed the Walter Worker, Camille he reminded himself, where he kept his different supplies. She nodded and looked at everything with clever calculating eyes, but just like Michael had said earlier she didn’t say a word. 

By the time he was finished with his impromptu tour of his work space Negrete was finished cleaning the faces of the robots. He had been expecting them to be the same gleaming silver that the other robot had been, but instead they were both so different and unique it was hard to see signature of the same person’s hand in creating them. Well, besides the fact that they were both alive and possibly sentient robots sitting in his workshop. Rabbit’s face mostly had a coating of white, although in several areas there was the gleam of copper, some partially oxidized to become a green color. Zero meanwhile was a shining gold, several plates on his face almost haphazardly put on. 

“Alright, we’re gonna start with a check.” Negrete announced, and Rabbit hopped off the stool to stand in the middle of the room, although she had a grimace on her face. 

“I don’t want to go into maintenance mode.” She said, frowning. Negrete rolled his eyes and placed a hand on her shoulder. 

“Look, I get it- well, no I don’t - but if you don’t do it on your own we’re going to have to make you.” Rabbit pouted a little more, clearly turning his words over in her mind, or whatever she had for a mind, before slumping over. She remained standing but now she was slightly bent over, a ragdoll from the waist up with arms akimbo and head limply facing down. 

Camille pulled out some kind of large, almost comical looking, remote, and walked over towards Rabbit. Negrete came over to sit next to Tony. 

“Not much we can do but watch for a bit.” 

“Are the robots remote controlled?” Tony exclaimed. Maybe they weren’t as sentient as he had thought, but Negrete had a laugh and waved his hand. He seemed to have warmed up to Tony, if only slightly. At least he didn’t seem to hold the same contempt for him that Rabbit did. 

“No, that just activates some of their responses system checks. Here, watch.” Camille pressed a button and Rabbit suddenly sat up, ramrod straight. Everytime Camille would press a button Rabbit would do an action, and then another action. Each second action Camille took note of, jotting down on a clipboard she had borrowed from Tony. After a little back and forth with very little that looked like a problem to Tony, Camille pressed a button, Rabbit’s arm shot out, and then began to jerk around uncontrollably. Camille hurried over and slapped Rabbit’s hand, which swung in front her into a thumbs up. Almost instantly Rabbit’s body relaxed and she raised her arm, slowly moving it around. The tremors remained. 

“Yeah, that’s the one.” Rabbit said dryly, heading over to reclining-denstist-chair thing that Tony used for working on full suits. Camille gestured Negrete over to Rabbit as Zero helped Camille grab several supplies from the drawers and shelves. 

“Did we run a neural wire check?” Negrete asked as he came over. 

“One second.” Rabbit responded, closing her eyes. It only took a second, her eyes snapping open. “They’re fine. All the injury went to the arm and hand.”

“Is that your saw blade arm?” Negrete gave it a look. Rabbit replied only with a tight nod.

“Injury?” Tony asked, surprised. “I didn’t hurt you. If anything you we’re the one hurting me.” 

“And therefore, hurting herself.” Zero said, nodding sagely as he held out several screwdrivers to Camille. 

“How does that work?” 

“So the robots, uh, back in the day, were used in the wars.” Negrete explained, Rabbit and Zero suddenly seeming to find the floor very interesting indeed. “The less said about that, the better honestly. But so that they couldn’t be put in the wars after a, uh, particularly rough war-” A tremor went up Rabbit and her fists clenched. Camille swatted at her for moving while she was working on removing some of the arm panels. “-the owner of the robots at the time put a neural block on them so that they literally cannot fight or hurt other living things. Well, except for Zero, he wasn’t around for that so he didn’t get that treatment. Just don’t tell the government.” 

“Yeah, you’re lucky that the arm was all that broke, unlike last week when my leg fell off.” Zero said and Rabbit cracked a small smile. 

“So pushing me up against the elevator…” Tony started and Negrete nodded along. 

“Yeah, even just that hurt Rabbit. Technically she’d probably be able to hurt you, probably even kill you, and still come out in one piece as long as she didn’t use her saw blade.” 

“Her what now?” Tony exclaimed, looking intently at Rabbit’s arms. 

“One of her arms, it can kind of…”

“Turn into a giant pizza cutter!” Zero exclaimed enthusiastically. “For cutting giant pizza’s, pizza’s the size of planets!” 

“A saw blade.” Tony summarized, nodding. “Okay, that’s cool. Why would that hurt her more?” 

“Harming people in that specific way if the exact way that the line of code prohibits, so to use it she’d have to bust through that neural block. It would not be pleasant.” Negrete explained. “Now et’s go back downstairs and leave the ladies-”

“And Zero!” Zero shouted. 

“...and Zero to fix up Rabbit. See what progress has been made.” Tony nodded at Negrete’s comment. 

“I hope so.” He said, sending his thought back to Peter and sending a prayer to whatever God might still listen to a mess like him that he was still alive. 

oOo

Inhuman hunters. Peter cursed himself. He should have known, should have asked the Avenger’s or the local vigilantes or someone for help earlier. The first night he had caught them tailing him. 

He was strapped so a slab, the metal cool and uncomfortable. No one else was in the room, the strange people in their lilac coats had come through and taken some blood samples and DNA and had left. Either they were stopping his powers or had prepared for him. Not even his strength could manage to make the thick iron bars holding him even creak. 

He had heard about these kind of men. The mad scientist kind of men, eager to chop Inhuman open and see what makes them tick. Why they are the way they are. How much of them is even human anymore, what parts of them have been altered. And, a thought that was like a rock in Peter’s stomach, see if they can replicate the effect. How long before they got what they needed from mere samples and decided to put him under the knife. Make an incision right into his chest. 

A creaking sound filled the room for a moment. 

Okay, so he wasn’t completely alone. For whatever reason they had put the robot in the same room as him. It still had yet to wake up, and if they didn’t give the robot the water i would eventually need it never would. Once again, he had brought his robot savior into a sticky situation. This one however, significantly more dire than the last. 

The creak of the door opening startled Peter out of his thought. They seemed to take no mind of him this time, all their attention on his robot companion. Last time they had been trying to pry open his paneling, but had been unsuccessful. This time they had much less finesse, pulling out some kind of tool that when it came in contact with the robot’s chassis gave off sparks and filled the room with an acrid smell. 

There were excited words exchanged as they removed the plate, and the light of the robots’ blue power source filled up the room. 

Peter’s senses told him what he already knew logically. 

As soon as they started messing with that thing, they were all in serious danger. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed it! Leave a review if you did - it keeps my motivation up.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING - mentions of cutting into an arm and poking in there. 
> 
> Prep work and infiltration.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have just a few more chapters to go. Not entirely satisfied with how this chapter came out but honestly this is all for fun, it's not like it has to be a masterpiece.

“We think we’ve found the base.” Michael said the words almost breathlessly, eyes on the screen in front of them. Bruce glanced back as the other half of their group entered the room. Rabbit’s arm had stopped shaking, so apparently whatever repairs had needed to be made were successful. Tony looked less ostracized than when he had last left with the group, although Rabbit still stood on the other side of the group, as far away as she could be from him. It was obvious that while the whole group was concerned for the missing robot, Rabbit in particular was taking the robot’s absence hard. The intellectual side of Bruce desperately wanted to know why and uncover the truth. The emotional side understood that as they were now, he was in no position to ask. 

“Then let’s go!” Zero exclaimed. “What’re we waiting for?” 

“Just for prep time.” Bruce answered. They were lucky to have Chelsea, she had been able to take the reading they were getting from what Michael had called ‘blue matter’ in the city and pinpoint a specific area. The real problem was what they found there. 

“It’s a big base.” Michael explained, turning towards his friends. “Heavily guarded. Bruce said that he and Tony have called in some exceptional friends to help us get in. They’re going to make a big scene in the front, and we’ll sneak in from the side. Tony and Bruce will come in from the side with us.”

“W-w-why are they-y coming-g-g?” Apparently whatever the repairs had been it hadn’t fixed rabbit’s stuttering glitch. 

“We need a good distraction, but we also need a strong set of people helping us get through the base. I’m sure a distraction won’t be enough for them to completely empty out the whole base.” Michael said calmly. 

“The more the merrier.” Zero said happily, although clearly Rabbit was not thinking the same thing. Her hand kept coming up and nervously touching her gated heart, where the blue light of her core shone through. 

“What time are we moving out?” Negrete asked, looking ready to go at the drop of a hat. 

“In an hour.” Bruce said, and then looked at Michael. “Are you sure that’s going to be enough time for you guys to be ready?” Michael just nodded. 

“We really don’t have time to lose. The second they start messing with the blue matter that’s inside of The Spine, lives will be lost. The blue matter doesn’t discriminate, anyone too close will be hurt.” Bruce caught Rabbit walk away from the group out of the corner of his eyes. She walked to one side of the room and sat down, picking up a random book and flipping through it. Not seeming to really see what was there. 

“I’m going to get a suit prepped.” Tony said, beginning to head towards the elevator again, but Camille caught his sleep, shaking her head lightly. 

“Oh, we need to run just a few quick things by you guys.” Michael explained. Tony and Bruce were led onto the couch along with most of the other’s. The only people who remained standing were Michael, Zero, and Camille. Zero gave a little mock bow at his ‘audience’. 

“This is something that might shock you, but us automatons can be quite heavy and scary at times.” Zero said, gesturing to himself. “I know you look at this face and think ‘he couldn’t hurt a fly, what a cool and awesome dude. But sometimes even we miss our beauty naps.” He explained. 

“What Zero is trying to say is that we don’t know what kind of state you might find The Spine in. So basically here are some guidelines for whatever the case might be.” Michael translated. “Since The Spine wasn’t waking up and functional when he was here, it’s pretty safe to assume he won’t be functional when we find him. If you do find him your first priority is to get him out. Same goes for the kid - no running around and trying to find the other’s or whatever. We’ll all have comms so just let the other’s know that way. Since most of us aren’t able to lift Spine on our own we’re going to have to try a trick. Zero, do me a favor and turn around.” Zero followed suit. “Right under a back panel on each robot’s there’s this button.” Camille opened the panel, showing it off to Bruce and Tony. It reminded Bruce of a flight attendant showing how to properly put on a seatbelt. “This will but them into their maintenance check mode - Tony you probably saw that with Rabbit earlier.” 

“Unless there’s a serious problem with his neural wiring, that can be used as a backdoor trick into waking him up. Now, there’s a chance he may be… hostile.” Michael said, and instantly Rabbit’s head snapped up, eyes wide. Zero turned around, confusion and a mild amount of fear in his eyes. 

“The Spine would never…” Zero muttered, hurt in his eyes, and Michael nodded, patting the robots shoulder. 

“Of course not, but we don’t know what state The Spine will be in. I wouldn't be surprised if the situation reminds him too much of Vietnam. He might not be in his right mind, caught in a harmful feedback loop.” Michael explained calmly. It didn’t seem to do much to assuage the fear and discontent that had rippled through the group. “If The Spine is attacking you or seems to be in a flashback that he can’t get out of, try to get to panel on the back of his neck.” Camille showed off where the panel was on Zero. “This is a manual reset button. It should turn him off. If everything inside of his circuitry is okay he’ll power back on within a minute. If that doesn’t happen, press it a second time.” Bruce found himself wishing he had grabbed a notebook or something to take notes on. He could tell that Tony’s mind was racing as all these nuggets about how the robots worked were dropped on them. 

“If he doesn’t become active and you’re unable to carry him out, call for help. But don’t leave him alone - there’s always the chance it’s just a delayed boot up.” Michael finished. “Our priority isn’t going to be to fight. We want to get the boy and The Spine out of there.” 

“We have an hour.” Tony said, rising and beginning to head towards the elevator. 

“Forty-five minutes actually.” Negrete said, and Tony gave a nod. 

“Forty-five minutes.” 

While Tony went to make sure he had a suit that would be good for the situation they were getting into, taking into account the tight spaces, the fact that they didn’t want confrontation, etc. Bruce led the other’s to the mission prep rooms, usually used when the Avengers were over preparing for a mission of some kind. Which usually happened when they were all in one place whether they wanted it to or not. 

The humans were all given some bulletproof, lightweight clothing and their weapons of choice. When he had offered the lightweight, dark jacket to Chelsea or Camille they had merely shaken their heads and pushed it away lightly. 

“I mean, it’s for your own safety.” He said, eyebrows knitting together.

“They won’t get hurt.” Negrete said somewhat ominously. Bruce tried to decide whether he wanted to know why Negrete was able to say that with such conviction but eventually decided against, letting out a long sigh. 

“Well at least take it so you’re in black. The bright white isn’t very conducive to hiding.” The girls seemed to accept that, rifling through the clothing to find something darker. 

“Rabbit! Rabbit! I found the perfect thing for you!” Zero exclaimed, running from one side of the room to his sister, excitedly holding something behind his back. 

“What is it?” She asked, a small smile on her face. Some of the cheer had reentered her eyes, and when Bruce looked at her he knew that was the expression that belonged there. Not the sad, quiet one she had been wearing since he’d met her. 

“A cutlass!” He sang the word out as he held out the sword proudly. Rabbit’s eyes widened as she gingerly reached out her hand and took the handle, giving the sword a few expert swipes through the air and then holding it out vertically in front of her. 

“Captain Albert Alexander.” She whispered. “Off to save the kidnapped brother.” She quickly found a sheath and tired it around her waist, putting away the sword and giving Zero a big hug. “It’s perfect.” 

“What are you going to take?” Bruce asked, curious what the weapon of choice would be for the other robot. He’d have to make sure Rabbit at least grabbed a gun before they left so she’d have some kind of long distance weapon. 

“Oh I don’t need one.” He said proudly, holding out his hand. “I have an arm that turns into a canon. I think I’m good.” Bruce’s eyebrows shot up and he caught the snickering from the other humans in the room at his surprise. 

oOo

Peter was trying to focus on breathing. It was hard, to try and drag his attention away from the slit they had made that ran up the length of his left arm. Poking and prodding at the muscles before cutting a small piece off and taking it away. His super strength was what they were interested in right now then. And he just wondered how long it was before they moved onto his eye sight, his hearing, literally any of his other enhanced senses. 

The mere concept of it made his stomach churn and threaten to lose what little he had eaten at Stark Tower. 

And focusing on breathing helped him not to focus on screams. 

Not his own. At least not this time. His throat had been hoarse after they had finished with his arm, not even bothering to sew it back up which couldn’t be a good sign. Must mean that they intended to go back in and eventually if they poked things long enough he knew they would break something. Damage some part of him irreparably. But the screams now were not his. 

They were the robots. 

He didn’t know that a robot could make such a human scream. Something that was so full of pain and agony with the sound of barely held back sobs. Could robots cry? If only Peter could manage to see he was sure he could find out. He had felt bad that the robot wasn’t waking up back at Stark Tower, but that was most definitely preferable to this. The only words from the robot were mangled to the point of being nearly unintelligible. Things like ‘rabbitrabbitrabbitrabbit and ‘jonjonjonjon’. But mostly it was just garbled screaming that often times doubled back in on itself as the robot got caught in sob filled stuttering loops. He could see that they were poking in it’s chest, vibrant blue bolts of electricity firing off of it in every direction but fizzling out. Becoming nothing. And everytime they disappeared the men in the lilac lab coats would give disappointed mutters to each other before going in again. 

“Nononono-no-nn-ooononoONONOOON-O-O-” Peter wished he could put a hand over his ears. He wished that he could get out of these constraints and punch those men, fend them off from the robot. He wished-

-the screaming stopped. Silent all at once. Too abrupt. 

Peter looked with wide eyes as the robot was still once again and held carefully, between two pieces of metal by one of the lilac men, was the glimmer of the robots blue core. 

oOo

The night air was cool against Tony’s skin. For now he was only wearing the gauntlets. Should the situation call for it, he was prepared to activate the rest of the suit, but for now this was the quietest option. Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Daredevil had all been available to help, so they were the ones going around the front. The rescue crew in the meantime were sitting on the fire escape of an adjacent building, watching with careful eyes and waiting for Bruce to get the signal from Black Widow through the comms unit. 

Bruce was perched at the top of the fire escape, where it would be easiest to get the signals. Camille and Chelsea sat with Zero between them, working on a couple absent minded tweaks to his gun/canon arm. Below them Michael and Negrete sat fiddling uncomfortably with the guns that Bruce had given them. Tony could tell that they would be willing to do what was necessary in order to get their robot back, but it was obvious that didn’t mean they liked the thought of shooting someone. 

Below them was Tony, running through the different settings on his gauntlets. And below him, legs dangling off the edge of the fire escape, looking out at the building they would soon be infiltrating, was Rabbit. 

He took a deep breath and got to his feet, descending the stairs down to Rabbit’s level. She had been quietly humming to himself, somethign he only really noticed now that she had stopped suddenly. Refusing to face him. The same cold that she had been giving him. He sat down, a good distance from her, face turned away as well. Letting the air between them contain all the tension. 

“I’m sorry.” He said softly, voice the barest whisper. Rabbit didn’t move. Steam didn’t even come off of her, as if she was holding her breath. “I’ve been inconsiderate. And-”

“It’s not you.” She said, words just barely louder than his. Surprise rippled through Tony and he turned quickly towards the robot. He hadn’t expected her to reply. And now she was looking at him, her blue and green eyes glowing in the dark, something vicous and thick rolling down her face. 

“What?” 

“I’m not actually mad at you.” She raised a hand to her face, desperately trying to get rid of the substance. Oil, Tony realized. Oil acting as tears. “I’m just so scared and mad at myself for not watching over him better. And I’ve never looked over him enough. Not now, not back in Vietnam, never.” The words were sobs, her hands shaking. 

“I-I’m sorry.” Tony tried to say, not sure how to deal with the situation. He knew he wasn’t the more emotionally smart person. 

“Don’t apologize. You shouldn’t need to. This entire time you’ve been helping us, and before that you were trying to help The Spine. I shouldn’t have taken my anger and frustration out on you.” 

“We have the signal.” Bruce called down, as quietly as he could manage why still getting the message down. Tony stood to his feet and offered Rabbit his hand. There was a pause, but she reached up and took it. Her hand was surprisingly cold to the touch, and he knew she wasn’t much help to counterbalance her weight and get her to her feet, but the gesture seemed appreciated regardless. 

Not all of them were superhero’s so they took the streets and back alleys to the side doors to the building rather than taking the significantly more fashionable and vigilante style rooftop-to-rooftop approach. Outside the door - thee exterior guards were gone just like they had anticipated - Tony saw Zero’s hand change into the large gun he kept referring to, face serious as they counted down silently before busting open the door. Tony and Zero, side by side, blasted electric blasts at the four guards on the other side. Taking them down quietly. Quickly. 

The group hurried inside the building, closing the door behind them. Rabbit took a moment and paused, staring at nothing, eyes far away. In the next instant her hands were to her head, oil slick tears springing to her eyes. 

“Rabbit!” Zero called, as quietly as he could manage in his panic. 

“It’s okay.” Rabbit assured, shaking. “I’m listening to him right now. He’s in pain, but that means he’s ali-” She cut herself off, eyes suddenly wide and jolting straight up. “No. No no no. He’s… he’s suddenly gone. He’s quiet, like he was. Was...” 

“Let’s just find The Spine quickly.” Negrete said, eyes sympathetic as he leant over and squeezed Rabbits hand. And then the group split up, taking the different corridors that spider webbed out into the building, searching for their missing companions. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope that the few people who read this found it entertaining. This goes out to you guys <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rabbit finds The Spine

The Inhuman Hunters had taken the limp, empty shell of the robot and tossed it onto the ground. It was splayed out on the cold cement, treated with as much care and notice as you might give pieces of scrap metal. The slab where the robot previously had been restrained on had turned into a table for experiments on the core they had ripped out of the robots chest. This had to be some kind of non-ideal situation for them, a temporary base probably.

A loud alarm rang out through the room, and the men in the lilac lab coats began to hurriedly talk to themselves. Hope fluttered its delicate wings inside of Peter’s chest as he thought about Tony and Bruce and the other superhero friends he had. Surely they were looking for him. And surely they would be here soon. 

However, he couldn’t guarantee the state he would be in at that point. The scientists, who had been carefully prodding and poking around with the robots core were quickening their movements. Bolts like electricity were coming off of it, and every space that they touched seemed to fizzle into nothing. Peter flinches as one landed on the sleeve of his shirt and watched as the very fibers of that spot undid themselves, spooling out into nothingness. Another hit his hand, agony rippling up his arm as the skin dissolved in about a nickle sized hole, showing the blood and muscle and bones underneath. 

“You guys should stop!” Peter called out, panicked, feeling the weight in the back of his head that was indicative of his spidey senses. The blue electricity continued to arc out into the room. “This - this is isn’t going to end well!” His voice wasn’t as strong as it should be, and he wasn’t sure if they just couldn’t hear him or didn’t care. A long stream of the light came off of the core and spidered through the air, on a path towards the wall before seeming to be pulled or directed by something, dipping down into the still open chest cavity of the robot. 

The scientists remained focused on the core, jotting down notes and bringing out some kind of clips with wire attached to them, attaching them onto the ethereal object. They didn’t notice the robot slowly rise to its feet, optics glowing green, blue electricity visible bouncing around inside of its chest. It looked once at Peter, at his restraints, and on stuttering legs came over, reaching down and with strong silver hands tore them away. 

“S-s-s-safe.” The robot stuttered in it’s deep voice. It’s entire body was shaking, and the lights in its eyes flickered, and he knew that at any moment the electricity that thrummed inside of it’s chest would dissipate and it would become inert again. 

“We need to get out of here.” Peter said urgently, rising to his feet and beginning to slowly move to the door, trying not to attract the attention of the scientists. The robot sent a glance back, just in time to see one of the scientists pull a lever, sending bolts of electricity into the core. 

In an instant the robot leapt onto of Peter, hugging him tight to it’s chest as the light inside of it died, turning it into a vice grip cocoon around him that he wasn’t able to break, especially not with the poor shape his one arm was still in - the open slit still sluggishly bleeding. There was a loud sound of something, and the world around Peter turned into shades of blue and the heat of the sun, the cold of the depths of space. He couldn’t breath, he hurt all over, and in an instant Peter knew that this was the end. 

oOo

Rabbit knew that something bad was happening the moment there was a spike in the blue matter energy. They had been inside of the base for only a little while. Maybe five minutes. Ten at the most. But now the question of where exactly The Spine was being kept was answered for them as the ground rippled underneath her fee and waves of energy coarsed through the air from somewhere further in the base. The result on herself was something she didn’t anticipate, the rush of blue matter somehow managing to at one moment cause her blue matter core to spike in energy and then in the next flicker dangerously as if it would simply go out like a flame against a powerful wind. 

But Rabbit continued despite the shakes to her system, trying to cover as much space as possible. She could feel the disturbances in the space around her, a part of her recognizing it from their time in the Vice Quadrant. A sign of space that was not correct, that was ripping and tearing and then folding in on itself like origami. 

And then it stopped. 

Too late then. Well, it had been too late the second the blast had started. But now any damage that the blue matter caused was finished, brought to its completion. And with it was also the easiest way to tell where The Spine was. Or what was left of him. 

When Rabbit came to the right door after checking dozens of other ones, she could tell. Something in her wiring told her. She wasn’t sure what part of it did - if The Spine was still giving off a signal, if it was the blue matter core somewhere behind the door, or just the intuition of old age, but placing her hand on the door knob the tremor ran up her. She knew, right then, that she wasn’t prepared for what she would find on the other side of the door. 

But prepared or not, her younger brother and an innocent teenager might still be alive, and hoping for help. 

The room was a disaster. Long streaks and burn marks marred the concrete walls and floors. Slabs to place people and robots on had been thrown to the side of the room violently. Beakers and test tubes had been shattered, splattering their contents and producing a layer of dangerous glass on the ground. If Rabbit had a gag reflex she would have lost the contents of her hypothetical stomach as she saw the bodies. Little more than bones were left, charred remains with only a few pieces of flesh still hanging onto them. Still smoking. Deep gouges in the bones and in some places they had been severed through with an eerily clean cut. Unnatural. Wires and pieces of metal was strewn across the room and Rabbit placed a hand to her eye, determined not to weep even as he recognized the some of the plating. 

Sitting innocently, hovering just a few inches off the ground, was a blue matter core.

“I found the room.” Rabbit said into her comms, letting the others know to follow her gps signal if they wanted to help or to get out if they were too far away. 

With ginger footsteps Rabbit walked over to the blue matter core and came to her knees next to it, reaching out a hand to hold it in, letting it float in her palm. She disengaged several of her lock mechanics as she raised her other hand to her barred chest plate. It might be dangerous, but this was surely the safest way to transport it. She placed it in her chest cavity next to her own blue matter core, and hoped that it wouldn’t burst inside of her. Or merge with her own core. Or flicker out. 

“H- hello?” A soft, hoarse, voice called. Rabbit jumped in surprise, slamming her chest plate back into place as her eyes surveyed the room again. She didn’t see anything immediately but continued to walk around, keeping an ear out for the small voice. 

When she saw it, she wasn’t sure how her eyes had missed it the first time. 

Off to one side of the room, very nearly in the corner but not quite there, was a moving figure. Whoever it was struggled against the weight and solid metal form around him. Mangled and beaten. Rabbit came closer, and oil tears pricked her eyes. 

“P-p-p-eter.” She said, seeing the face that had been shown to her by Tony and Bruce looking up at her. He looked worse for wear, skin seared and in several places the top layered had been skimmed right off. His hair was singed and several areas of his clothing were just gone. But he was alive, here, with tear tracks on his face and puffy red eyes. 

Around him, keeping him almost in a cage, was the dormant vice like grip of The Spine. Or, what was left of him. Most of his chassis and plating had been blown off, leaving on his skeletal under structure around the boy. But his joints had been locked into place, and even with The Spine out of commission his arms held firm. 

“I need help carrying things.” Rabbit called into the comms with a rushed whisper. She kneeled down to be face to face with the boy, trying to make herself as friendly as possible. He was a superhero, she had heard. But right now, he looked just like a regular, scared, young boy. She had met plenty of those in the war. 

“Hi, Peter. My-y-y name’s R-r-r-abbit. Are you okay?” The boy nodded, looking at her with wide eyes, tracing over her face plates. 

“I- I- you’re a robot too.” He said, and Rabbit knew that shock must be going through his body. 

“Yes. I-I-I’m The Spines sister.” 

“The Spine?” He echoed the name curiously. Rabbit placed a hand on The Spines skeletal structure shoulder and realization entered his eyes followed by fresh tears. 

“He saved me.” Rabbit didn’t have time to deal with all of this fallout, and it ached her to leave the boy still hurting. But they had to be moving. She reached up and placed a gentle hand on each of The Spine’s arm. 

“S-s-s-sorry.” She whispered, and wrenched the arms apart. They were brittle in this state, and the joints broke easily under her hands. Peter let out a small gasp as she broke her own brother’s arms, but then hurried and scuttled out from under the robot. 

“Rabbit!” Bruce, Negrete, and Chelesea entered the room, each taking a moment to survey the area. 

“We ne-e-e-e-ed to get the b-b-b-oy out of here.” Rabbit said. Peter was shivering as he stood up, eyes wide and staring out at nothing. 

“I’m on it.” Bruce said quickly, hurrying over and draping an arm over the small boy. “Come on kid, let’s get you somewhere safe.” 

“Chelsea, Stev-v-ve. Can you pick up-p-p- any of Ss-s-spine that you ca-ca-ca-can find?” Rabbit rose to her feet and grabbed the skeletal structure, cradling it in her arms. If the data inside of the skull was still intact, then maybe…

The other two gave quick nods, hurrying around the small room as Rabbit left. Just an hour ago, they had been briefing the humans on what to do if they found The Spine. The robots were so sturdily built that the mere concept that he could just be carried out without robotic assistance had been ludicrous. 

But not, with his plating and wiring gone, it was like holding nothing at all. So light she could barely feel him in her arms. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter wakes up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we got probably just another chapter or two to go, yay!

Peter woke up to a dark room, soft lights of a sun high in the sky snuck through the slivers between blinds on the window giving him enough light to see by. He knew this room, knew it perhaps a little too well. One of Mr. Starks hospital rooms. Not the same one that he had brought the robot into, however long ago. Occasional lights flickered on and off, giving read outs. His readouts. Not that he had anything connected directly to him - unless you were in severe danger Friday could usually get a good chunk of your health reading just fine on their own. 

Two soft blue lights did not blink. They held steady in the darkness. Peter let his eyes finish adjusting to the room, making out a large and almost imposing figure in the room, seated on the chair at his beside. Eyes trained on his face. 

Peter sat up slowly, waiting to see what his senses told him. But they didn’t say anything, remaining silent. Relief rushed through Peter. He felt so exhausted, he wasn’t sure he would be able to do anything about an attacker right now. 

“Hello.” The man said, and he finally blinked his eyes. And somehow that already made him more human. 

“Hi.” Peter said, tracing the way that the sunlight caught on the robots golden face. “Are you… are you related to the other robot?” He asked softly, and a wide fond smile spread across the other robots face, so vibrant and full of sunshine he might as well have pulled up the blinds and let the light of day in. 

“He’s my brother, The Spine.” Affection dripped off of the words, warm and friendly. 

“The Spine.” Peter whispered the name back. He had vague recollections of hearing the other robot say it, the one that had found him before Bruce had come in to get him out of that horrid place. But he was much more present now, and he took the name and held it somewhere inside of him. After all this time, what had been only a few days but felt like ages, he had a name to the face. 

“I’m Zero.” The robot continued, and stuck out a hand. Peter reached out and took it. There was something a little funny about the fact that he could tell both of them were being careful, cautious of their own strength. 

“Is… is he okay?” Peter asked, tracing an eye up the length of his arm instead of looking at Zero. The long slice up his arm had been stitched up, and there were spots of bandages all over him. Even though he couldn’t see the damage he could feel it every time he moved. His senses could be a bitch like that sometimes. So hypersensitive it was like he felt everything on a new level of pain. 

“He’s… He’s a strong guy.” Zero said, which wasn’t an answer. 

“Why were you watching me sleep?” 

“The Spine did a lot to protect you.” His voice was almost painfully honest, and Peter couldn’t help but to flinch, trying to parse through his muddied memories after the blue explosion, wanting to recall what had happened to the robot. “I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

“Can I see him?” Peter felt so small. Zero sat there for a moment, mulling over the question, head tilted to the side. 

“I think so. As long as you don’t get in the way.” Zero rose to his feet, and then helped Peter up. He was in simple sweats and barefoot. Several bandages were around his feet and spiraled up his leg. The damage must have been bad. He knew he had only survived the blast thanks to The Spine. One image that would not leave his mind from right after the explosion was when his eyes had landed on the mutilated skeletons of the scientists. Their skulls seemingly still in a form of agony and pained screeching. 

They ascended a flight of stairs, turning into what Peter knew was one of the Tony’s work stations. Zero walked ahead of Peter and swung the doors open, noise instantly assaulting his ears. Two girls in white uniforms seemed to flutter around the work bench, their blue hair distinct and shocking. No words were said between the two, but chirps and whistles were exchanged as if they were small warblers creating a nest. Zero announced his entrance with a trill of his own, causing both of the girls to pause for a moment and wave at him. Off to one side on a work bench sat a man also with a white uniform on. He had a pair of odd goggles on his head, a lamp swung down to focus light on the table in front of him. Peter thought he could make out the outline of five digits and a palm of a hand. He didn’t look up from his work but spared a hand to wave at Zero all the same. 

Peter could see Tony deep in a conversation with another man, this one wearing black, his dreadlock hair pulled back in a bandana. In front of them sat an array of warped metal pieces, looking at them with what appeared to be a critical eye. Finally, in the very back of the room, Bruce stood next to the tall figure of the robot that had found Peter inside of the Inhuman Hunter base. Both of their backs were to Peter, facing a luminescent blue orb floating just a few inches over the table in front of them. It looked like some kind of basic rigging was being built around it, the robot gesturing and explaining the make up of which to Bruce, who was taking notes and jotting down designs in a notebook. 

Zero continued to walk into the room, approaching the slab in the middle of the room, and then gesturing for Peter to approach. He walked up to it, trying to be mindful of the two blue haired women. Peter felt his stomach almost collapse in on it at the sight on the work slab. The robot was hardly recognizable as the one he had seen previously. Most of what was left was a skeletal structure, bones made out of hard steel. The spines were actually still there, and without any of the other plating Peter could see how they tucked up, four of them going in so far that they sat right beneath the metal framed ribs. 

All facial plating was off, but the orbs that made up the eyes of the robot were still there, creating an incredibly unnerving empty stare, eyes unlit. The blue haired workers were carefully laying out wires along the length of the robot, making it look like the exposed nervous system of a human being. 

“Is he…” Peter couldn’t finish the sentence, hand stretching out towards the robot, towards its hand. But it didn’t have a hand now, just an empty stump and wires. The robots’ hand was clear across the room, being carefully crafted by the man in the goggles. He could feel tears itching his eyes and hastily reached up to try and dry stop them from coming. 

“Hey Peter!” Tony’s voice boomed across the room and by the time Peter was done furiously scrubbing his face to look up, Tony was right in front of him. His hand lowered and playfully ruffled Peter’s hair, relief evident on his face. “It’s good to see you up and about. Gave us a scare for a second there.” 

“What happened, exactly?” Peter lifted a hand to rub his arm self consciously, but one of his arms had the stitches and the other was covered in bandages. Instead he clasped his hands together in an attempt to still his butterfly like thoughts. 

“Now that is a good question.” Tony said and led Peter to one of the tables, offering a seat. He gladly took it, feeling weaker than he’d like as his legs wobbled. “The Inhuman Hunters were running some experiments on the thing that fuels the robots.” He sent a gesture to the blue core, and Peter nodded along. He could understand that much. “It’s made of what the Walter’s call blue matter, basically something that helps to form the fabric of the universe. It’s usually pretty stable, but nothing reacts nicely when you pump a bunch of electricity into it. That’s what caused the explosion. From the reports and data that Michael showed me - uh, Michael is one of the guys who looks after these robots and works with them - the amounts of volts they pumped through it and therefore the explosion was small time contrasted with an event a couple decades ago. Regardless though, it should have ripped through every organic thing in the room, except for maybe bones. But somehow The Spine - that’s the name of the robot we had here - shielded you from most of it. But not all of it” 

Tony reached out and grabbed Peter’s hand, gently unwrapping some of the bandages. Peter took in a sharp breath as he saw what was under it. The top layers of skin were simply not there in circular patterns almost like crop circles on the back of his hand. Tony or whoever tended the wounds had put a kind of thick salve over it to disinfect and keep it safe, but Peter could still see the muscle and bone. 

“It’ll take a while, to fully heal.” Tony explained as he re-wrapped the bandages. “It tore most of the robot apart - how The Spine managed to move without its core in place is a mystery but I’m certainly glad it managed it. We’re going to keep an eye on you for some blue matter poisoning for a bit, but other than that we’re in the clear.” 

“Blue matter poisoning?” Peter questioned. Tony gestured to the two blue haired girls. 

“From exposure to raw blue matter. From what I’ve been told it usually takes years of extremely close contact with it for it to have any real effect, but explosions have a habit of changing the rules a bit.” 

“Is The Spine going to be okay?” It seemed like the one question he kept coming back to. Tony gave him a soft look. 

“We’re doing what we can. With the help of the The Spines schematics we’re rebuilding his chassis and his wiring. After that, hopefully, it’s just a flick of a switch to turn him on.” 

“And if he doesn’t wake up? Like before?” Peter tried to hold it back but his fear slipped into his words. 

“We’ll figure it out.”

“I want to help.” Peter said determinedly. Tony just nodded as if he had expected it. He probably had, he knew the kind of person that Peter was. And how determined to help The Spine Peter had been before he had even known the robots name. 

“I’m sure we can find somewhere you can be of use... “ Tony glanced around the room, eyebrows scrunched together as his eyes flitted from one person the next, sizing up their work. “Chelsea, Camille, do either of you need a hand?” Both of the blue haired girls paused in their work and looked at one another, quick whistles exchanged between the two. Off to the side the man wearing the goggles in the white uniform sat up and held up a hand, whistling a few times as he pushed up his protective eye gear. 

“He can help me over here.” Peter walked over quickly, anxious to do something that would contribute. The man smiled at him as he pulled up a chair, looking curiously at the work. “Good to see you’re doing okay, Peter. My name’s Michael. Tony said you have a sharp mind, right?”

“Uh, yes sir. I like to think so.” He nodded somewhat shyly. The man’s smile widened. 

“No need to be bashful. The hands are delicate and tedious work, and I could really use another person working on this so it doesn’t take me a million years.” He shuffled around and brought out another set of goggles, handing them over to Peter. 

“Should I really be…” the words delicate send a shiver of fear through Peter. 

“I’ll double check everything you do, and we’ll work at the same time so I can help you out. Besides, it hands don’ work when The Spine is first powered on we can deal with it later - they’re not vital to his systems.” Peter slowly nodded as Michael pushed over a second hand that, much like the one he had seen earlier, was mostly just the skeletal structure. He lowered the goggles, the entire world becoming blue hued as they activated, informing Peter what the different pieces of the hand were, what was missing, and possible problems in the layout so far. 

“Alright.” Michael straightened up for a minute and cracked his back before leaning back over the table top. “...let’s get to work.” 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working on The Spine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So like, one more chapter probably after this. I wrote all of this chapter in like one day, and tbh it probably shows.

Bruce’s hands hurt. Everytime he tried to clench them they let out screams of protest. The muscles up his arms harbored a similar pain, a special kind where even just letting his arms hang limply at his side ached. But in a way it felt good - it was something that had only come from working hard and selflessly for a good cause. To save a life. The past three had been brutal work hours, lots of trouble shooting work done and then having to take it apart and do it again. He couldn’t deny how, while the process had been grueling at times, it invigorated him to work on the robot and get a good look at how it was put together. From what he had heard while the other two robots were similar on the inside the make up of each of them was very unique. 

Not for the first time in the past three days he thought about how impressive the people he was in the presence of were. Particularly Camille and Chelsea, who were apparently in charge of all the work done on the robots while they were away from their home. Walter mansion they had said, and that rang some kind of bell in Bruce’s head, but he had yet to quite pin it down. He was sure it would come to him eventually, those kind of things usually did. After being around Zero and Rabbit for a while and getting to know them a bit better, it became clear that they had some kind of wireless form of communication - he knew for a fact that Tony had tried to see if Friday was able to hack into it, but while they were able to talk to Friday wirelessly Friday wasn’t able to sneak into their ‘group chat’ as it was. 

In a way even more impressive was the fact that they could communicate with one another through other means, namely a series of whistles and warbles. Chelsea and Camille both were fluent or close to fluent in the language. Apparently from having such close contact and prolonged time working with the blue matter cores of the robot not only had their physical appearance changed making their skin a chalky white and hair a starling blue, it had also done some damage to their vocal chords. However, they were still able to whistle. Michael and Negrete weren’t nearly as well versed, but both had picked up a good deal of the language by spending so much time around the robots and the workers (although they had also gotten very good at reading Chelsea and Camille’s body language and were all fluent in ASL to also help communication) the two of them were able to pick up snippets of conversation. Even Bruce was beginning to catch onto at least which whistles were names and some of the common ones used at greetings, also being able to whistle well enough to actually utilize them was another thing entirely. 

The things he had learned about the robots sent his mind reeling, and he already had two notebooks full of either confirmed information or theories he had. Much to his surprise, the robots actually had to go to ‘sleep’, although both of them, mostly Rabbit, tended to try and stay up as long as possible. Although that was likely just a result of not wanting to stop working on The Spine. It was kind of like a maintenance cycle, the robot didn’t actually turn off as several of its processes continued to run and do check on its system and repair what it could. Really, it was remarkably like how the human body worked. 

“What do we do if this doesn’t work?” Peter asked, hovering by The Spine. Everyone wore their exhaustion plainly on their faces, it had been a long past couple of days. Laying out on the table in front of them was the (almost) fully assembled Spine. Some of his most distinct features, like facial plates, were exclusively made by Camille, Chelsea, and Rabbit. But many of his other sections were a collaborative effort, the plans supplied people like Bruce who got his work checked off by the other’s. Many pieces of the robot were incredible, like the subtle and tiny pressure plates in his hands so he was able to determine how fragile an object was.

What they had easily spent the longest amount of time on was the caging around the Blue Matter core. It was the only thing that they did not have proper plans for, and trying to keep it contained was a high priority. The first few days before a preliminary container had been crafted Rabbit had stored it inside of her chest plate alongside her own core. It was also potentially dangerous, but better than just letting it sit out in the open. 

“Then… then we have to take him apart and find out where we went wrong.” Negrete said slowly. 

“Where’s their creator?” Tony asked. It had been a question that both of them had been skirting around the past few days, hoping that it wasn’t a sensitive object. The longer they spent with Rabbit and Zero the more evident it was that they were fully sentient beings, not objects. Bruce couldn’t help but to wonder if perhaps their creator had been cruel or immovable in his views of them as merely robots and that’s why they were on the road. Far from home. 

“Their creator is… he is no longer with us.” Negrete was obviously trying to be tactful, glancing over at Rabbit and Zero from the corner of his eye. 

“Pappy h-h-h-has been dead-d-d for a long-g-g time-e-e.” Rabbit responded, and though a wave of emotion flickered across her face she did not cry - not like the oil tears that had spilled from her eyes the first little while as she had stared at The Spine’s unmoving body. Like when she had managed to return to Stark Tower, her brother’s limp form cradled in her arms. It was an old wound then, Bruce realized. Such incredible creations couldn’t be that old though, Bruce concluded that they had died not long ago. 

“His family still watches over us. But they’ve been on a trip in a different dimension for the past month or so.” Zero explained

“Texting doesn’t cross the planes.” Michael elaborated, frowning slightly. “And we can’t bring The Spine back until we’re sure that his core is correctly contained, and the only thing that can obtain that specific information is the data entries inside of The Spine’s neural network, another thing that we don’t really know enough about to touch. So the only way to make sure the blue matter core is safe is for The Spine to wake up.” Peter and Bruce nodded solemnly. Tony was frowning, and hand to his chin, obviously his brain working about a billion miles a minute. 

“Well, no time to find out like the present.” Bruce said, motioning to Rabbit who held the (hopefully) contained blue core in her hands. She dutifully walked over to her brother’s open chest cavity and clicked the core into place, hands fluttering around as she put the locks and precautions into place. Bruce saw Tony gently grab Peter by his shoulders and pull him back to be slightly behind him. The boy’s healing factor had already taken care of many of his wounds but Tony was all the more careful around the boy these days. 

The core light up slightly brighter, and the water inside of the tank began to boil. The plating on The Spine shut back into place, not unlike it did when they had refilled the water several days ago. The sound of things shifting and turning and spinning inside of the mechanical body filled the room, silent and full of bated breath. Bruce eagerly leaned forward, just hoping for those metallic eyelids to flutter open. 

Instead Rabbit and Zero almost fell to the ground, crouching and clutching their hands desperately to their heads. Hot oil tears were running down their faces. 

“S-s-s-s-sir.” Friday crackled over the intercom. Chelsea was already rushing towards The Spine, reaching behind his neck and turning the switch. Zero and Rabbit both slumped to the ground like ragdolls. 

“Friday, systems check.” Tony ordered. 

“The same interference from several days ago returned the moment that The Spine tried to initialize.” The AI read out. From the floor Zero and Rabbit were powering back on, blinking in the flourescent lightbulbs. 

“Do you guys need a systems check too?” Bruce asked the robots as he held out a hand to assist them. Neither of them took it, and Bruce realized after a beat that he was much too small to really be of any help to them. 

“N-n-no, I think we-rerere good.” Zero said, and then frowned. Camille was on him in a moment, giving a couple whistles before she reached up and opened his throat piece. After a moment she closed it back up again, and Zero cleared his throat. “Okay, so maybe not.” 

“D-d-d-d-d-d-d-” Rabbit let out a cry of frustration and punched her own jaw. “Damn it.” She finally got out, stuttering steps leading her to her brother’s side. She reached out and gripped one of the Spine’s hands. “S-s-s-s-s-spine. What’s-s-s-s-s wrong?” 

“Rabbit, you should go and get a maintenance check by Chelsea.” Michael said, patting her shoulder affectionately. Rabbit didn’t take her eyes off of her brother. 

“N-n-n-not until-til-til he wake-kek-ke-kes up-p-p.” Rabbit replied. Chelsea gave a couple of whistles. 

“She’s right.” Zero said slowly. “The Spine wouldn’t want you letting your own care fall to the wayside just for him.” After a moment Rabbit nodded and let herself be led to one of the side rooms by the blue haired girl. 

Tony and Michael sat down on opposite side of The Spine, each giving a bit sigh as they took off the arms. 

“I guess we have to go through all the wiring again. Make sure it’s all correct.” Tony said, and the exhaustion had never been more plain on the man then it was at that moment. Like a doctor who had failed to wake a patient from a coma. 

oOo

“Mr. Stark, there is a man downstairs who would like to see you.” Friday said over the intercom. Tony rose reluctantly, feeling his bones pop and crack as if he was a human rice crispy treat. It had now been a week since they had brought Peter and The Spine back to Stark tower, and while Peter had come out the other side fine, save for a few scars, The Spine had yet to rise from his sleeping beauty nap. Every attempt to wake him up ended with a mass discharge of… something. Tony was fully able to understand it, but it had very bad effects on Rabbit, Zero, and Friday. 

Today he was double checking the wiring on one of the feet. The idea of the problem being a simple circuitry problem was just wishful thinking at this point, and he was pretty sure that they all knew it. Eventually they would have to crack open The Spines skull and take a look in there. The only problem was that none of them seemed to know how to dig around with those wires without completely putting The Spine at risk. 

“I’m on way down.” Tony informed his AI as he approached the elevator. At least telling some business man who wanted to try and pedal their idea off to him would be a change of pace for a little bit. Even if it was just a solicitor Tony was already thinking about trying to lead them on with a bit of conversation, act like he was actually interested in their product for a bit. At least he wouldn’t be sitting down and tearing apart and rebuilding the same piece of machinery. 

He was surprised, when he arrived in the lobby, to find not just one person there. Three people stood in front of the desk, and from the look his secretary was giving him he already knew they were ‘lovely folks’, his internal alarm system going off. 

“Hello.” Tony blocked the secretary from their field of view, casually pulling back her wheeled chair and putt her safely behind him. “How can I help you folks today?”

“We’re here for-!” The shortest one, some kid with a wooden mask about as lanky as Peter stepped forward with his chest slightly puffed out. The taller man behind him, wearing thick sunglasses, grabbed the boy by the shoulder and stalled what was obviously intended to be a very bold statement. 

“Pardon my son.” He said, voice kind and apologetic. “We heard that our family has been staying with you?” 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Walters come to take care of The Spine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! This is probably the second time I've actually managed to finish a multichapter fic! Thank you for reading, whenever and wherever you are reading this. I know the ending it somewhat sudden, but it felt like the right place to end it.

Tony isn’t quick to trust, and while he leads the three people upstairs he already has Friday working as fast as the AI can in the background to see exactly who these people were. If only he had taken Zero or Rabbit down with him - then he could have seen either of their first reaction to the people and gone from there. 

“Now I don’t know exactly who it is you’re referring to but I’m sure up in my office we can try and find out who it is you’re looking for.” Tony says airily, easily putting up his veneer of composure that he usually wore when he went to board meetings. The ‘son’ had to be about in his twenties or older, although with the mask he wore on his face it was hard to tell, and it did nothing to make Tony want to trust him any more. 

“Rabbit, The Spine, Zero…” The man, who had introduced himself as ‘last name is Walter, first name’s will only complicate things’, said. Tony tried not to tense up. If they knew the robots that could be good news, but it could also mean they were enemies, trying to hunt them down. He had to remain tactile. 

“Odd names for people.” He said instead of actually answering whether or not he knew them. 

“They’re here.” The son, who had just said to call him Six, was looking down at his phone in his hand. “I’m literally texting them right now.” Walter looked at his son in surprise, and even Tony leaned forward to look at the phone, eyebrows shooting up to his hairline. Before he could get a good look at what exactly Six was typing the elevator came to a stop. Too soon to be at the right floor - it would only do that if someone had overridden the elevator. Who would-

“S-s-Six!” Rabbit’s voice was loud and Tony couldn’t help but to flinch at the unexpected noise. Tony whirled around to see that they were on the exact floor where they were currently working on The Spine. Rabbit pushed past Tony to wrap her arms around the boy with the mask, who hugged back without seeming to even think about it. 

“Rabbit, you’re okay!” Walter said, relief in his voice palpable, and Rabbit disengaged from hugging Six to hugging Walter and his wife, Annie, who both reciprocated the hug warmly. 

“They’re here, they’re here!” Zero was yelling excitedly, and the sound of footsteps let Tony know that all the rest of the group they had been working with had entered the room. He backed off of the elevator, Rabbit and the newcomers following suit. 

“Does anyone want to fill me in?” He said as Zero rushed in to hug all three of the humans in his arms, steam excitedly pouring out of his vents. 

“Tony, this is Peter Walter the fifth and his wife, Annie.” Negrete seemed willing to explain, forgoing the reunion that both of the robots were indulging in. “And that’s their son, Peter Walter the sixth.” So the name Six made more sense then. He felt himself frown slightly, mind reeling. “They’re Rabbit’s and the other’s family.” 

“Wait, I know those names.” Tony said, and he glanced over to see Bruce with a similar expression on his face. “Peter Walter, Peter Walter…” 

“Walter robotics!” Bruce exclaimed loudly, a fist thumping onto his palm as realization spread across his face. “You guys are the owner of the Walter Robotics company. And that means, that means…” Walter was already nodding his head. 

“Our robots are the Steam Man Band. Well, Rabbit and The Spine were anyway. Zero just recently started to perform with them.” 

“No…” Tony said slowly, eyes widening. “No, that would mean that they’re over a hundred years old. This tech is cutting edge, bleeding edge, it’s from somewhere on the other side of the edge. Not a century old that can’t be-”

“Pappy was ahead of his time.” Rabbit said as a form of explanation. It was like Tony was looking at the robot through new eyes. Taking in the intricate movements that the robot was capable of. It could speak. It could Sing! They had developed their own language for goodness sake. He had spent days pouring over the blue prints for The Spine. How much of those were over a hundred years old? He felt like he had just been given ancient transcripts from a long lost civilization that performed marvels that even modern days could only dream of. 

“Where is he?” Walter said, standing up a little straighter as he looked around and did a quick head check on the robots. Zero’s eyes went to the ground and Rabbit eagerly took Walter’s hand, beginning to lead him to the other room. 

“This way, Five.” Rabbit said and Tony found himself following them as well, curiously to see how Walter would handle the situation. The robots must be like a family heirloom or something, and he wondered just how much Walter understood them when he was several generations divorced from the man that had crafted them. 

“Oh dear.” Annie said as they entered the room, looking at The Spine. “Where are his legs?”

“The legs are fine!” Michael assured, hurrying to one of the legs that sat on the workbench. “The Spine has been having… difficulties waking up. We keep hoping that it’s a minor wiring issue because if it’s not-”

“Then it’s a core or a neural wiring issue.” Six inserted, nodding his head. 

If watching Chelsea and Camille took Tony’s breath away, then the movements of Walter, Annie, and Five would leave him deceased. Without any hesitation the three of them stepped forward like batters up to the plate. Annie pulled up a seat next to The Spine and took of his arm, easily opening the panels and letting her eyes skirt over the wiring and plating with an expert gaze. Five opened up the chest plate of The Spine and Tony could hear the sound of the safety locks being undone. He withdrew the core and it’s shielded exterior, it’s blue glow illuminating his wooden mask, but not even that seemed to be able to light up the keyhole in the center of it. 

Finally Walter himself sat down at The Spine’s head. That was the one place that they hadn’t really touched at all, besides fixing the face plates. It was almost horrific as Walter parted the skull, moving pieces of The Spine’s very head. Tony, Bruce, and Peter almost in sync moved to get a better look at what Walter was doing. The wiring in The Spine’s head had already been gently pulled out, spilling over the slab like spaghetti. Walter was carefully inspecting the wires with a critical eye. 

“Ah, there we are.” He said, attracting the attention of everyone else in the room. He held up his hand, a small bundles of wires resting on his palm. They were all melted together, bits of the fine metal threads sticking out. 

“Oh dear.” Annie said, placing a hand on The Spine’s chassis. Rabbit’s eyes had widened and she was shivering in place, Zero carefully taking her hand and rubbing soothing circles into it. 

“What caused that?” Six asked, looking over. He had already dismantled most of the protective structure around the blue matter core, and looked like he had started on a new one. 

“Well, looking at the wire that overheated in the first place…” Walter turned his attention back to the wires, and Tony couldn’t help but to be impressed as he seemed to read something in the tangle of wires so quickly. It was clear that this family knew these robots and their insides well, even Tony had to pull out his notes whenever he let himself get elbow deep in Friday’s wiring just to double check that he wasn’t going mess something up and have an Odyssey situation on his hands. “It was the neural block.” Walter diagnosed, pulling out a piece of braided wiring from the center of the clump, a small sphere attached to it. “He busted right through it. Must have really hurt one person or fought a lot of people at the same time. Probably used his tesla arm, if he did this much damage to himself.” 

“I’m so sorry!” Peter cried, head buried in his hands, shoulders shaking. Tony looked over sharply, feeling his eyebrows raise into his hairline. Peter had seemed so composed the past few days, if a little numb. But he had assumed it was residual shock from the explosion… “He’s hurt because of me!” 

“What do you mean?” Six asked, his father still sitting with the wires in his hand, mouth opening and closing like a fish. 

“I was in an alleyway. And these people were attacking me and The Spine, he got me out of harms way and, and then… and now he’s dead!” Peter cried out, tearing his head out of his hands and showing the tear tracks on his face. His eyes had already become a puffy red. There was a surge of movement, and suddenly Rabbit had him in a fiercy hug, her eyes squeezed shut. 

“Shhhhh…” She whispered, and began to softly hum some sort of lullaby. 

“Kid, The Spine would’ve known what he was doing when he decided to attack the folks. You don’t just accidentally burst through a neural block.” Walter explained, finally seeming to remember how to speak. 

“He’s always had a soft spot for children.” Annie spoke up. 

“Besides kid, he isn’t ‘dead’.” Six said, leaning forward and placing his head on his chin. “We can fix this.”

“But… the wiring…” Peter said, eyes still locked onto the clump held in Walter’s hand. 

“It’s been replaced several times in The Spines life.” Six continued. “He’s going to be okay, kiddo.” 

Peter nodded dumbly. 

“Just leave it to the Walters.” Rabbit said, voice full of conviction and certainty .

oOo

The Spine didn’t immediately open his eyes. He waited for the pain, the confusion that he had begun to associate with every time his processors reengaged. But it never came, and he relished in the absence of it. Slowly he ran through his diagnostic program, inspecting every nook and cranny of both his software and hardware. Everything was right where it should be, not like the tangled labyrinth he had been trying to navigate before. Except, except there wasn’t-

The Spine’s eyes fluttered open. 

It signaled triumphant whoops and cries, and he felt arms around him, and the the warm drip of oil onto his face plate. Familiar tweets that he translated without a thought. 

“ _ Spine, Spine, Spine!”  _

“ _ Rabbit?”  _ He called out, and the arms only came around his tighter. 

“What are they saying?” Someone in the room asked in a mock whisper. They weren’t alone. The Spine slowly raised himself from laying to sitting, Rabbit helping to support him although he didn’t need it. Truthfully, he was in better shape than he had been in at least a few months. Time on the road always took a toll on his processors, but never anything major. 

“Th’ Spine?” He knew that voice at least. 

“Zero?” He looked around, trying to see past Rabbit’s hair. He caught a glint of gold right before it rammed into his chassis. 

“Th’ Spine! It’s so good to hear your voice!” 

“The core is holding steady, good work Six.” Another familiar voice. The Spine carefully pushed away his two siblings.

“Five, Six?” He called out, looking around curiously before his eyes finally landed on them. “Annie too. What are you doing here? When did you arrive?” 

“Not even a ‘thank you’, Spine?” Six said, but the sarcasm was palpable and The Spine smiled. 

“You’re wiring was pretty messed up, not even the Walter Workers wanted to touch it.” Five said.

“The neural block.” The Spine said, closing his eyes again to check what he had noticed earlier. “It’s gone.” 

“Let’s keep that on the down low.” Five replied. “Pretend I gave a wink right now. It made sense back then, but you also need to defend yourself, and others.” Five back up, allowing for a man to come into view. Not really a man, The Spine mentally amended, a boy. And the memory logs came to the forefront of his mind. The fight in the alley. Seeing the boy strapped to a surgical slab, the taste of blue matter in the air. 

“The Spine.” The boy said, walking forward. “Thank you so much, for helping me.” There was the slight warble to his voice, and The Spine could see the tears glimmer in his eyes. 

“It’s no problem to help a child.” The Spine replied cooly. “May I ask you a question however?” 

“Anything.” The boy said, almost desperately. 

“What is your name?” The Spine asked, and felt steam come out of his cheek vents in embarrassment. The boy looked at him for a moment, face blank as the people somewhere behind him in the room snickered. 

“Peter. It’s Peter.” 

“Another Peter.” The Spine said to himself. “It’s a pleasure to at last, properly meet you.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... and then they hang out and play video games and Tony freaks out about Six's face (or lack there of). 
> 
> Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked it! If you did, like, maybe drop a comment. They keep my motivation up.


End file.
